Freezing Silence
by Louisa4533
Summary: Companion to Clashing Tides, Winged Fire, and Sun's Heat. The trio are after a half-blood that the satyrs can't find. But with an incoming superstorm, doofuses for dormmates, long-lost siblings, an argument that could change the course of demigod history and re-start the Civil War (again), and cunning monsters (which is an oxymoron), the school will never be the same...
1. School!

**I don't own PJO or KC! Didja know that? You did? Darn.**

I

Jace

School?!

Wow, I can't believe that Alexis actually let me have the mic on the first bit, even after last night's fiasco-

[Alexis! I don't care if you-]

One moment.

Ok, I'm back. So anyway, before Alexis fries my eyebrows off, I'll just get on with the story before I get burnt.

Louisa wanted to try out the real world for a change instead of just sitting in camp. That's pretty much what started all of this. Louisa had tried to go to Goode High, but after a packet sent home that was intended to kill her, a science laboratory experiment gone wrong (long story), a cat (longer story), and a wreath, two lizards, and a girly shriek (don't even bother to ask), she decided that Goode wasn't for her.

But Cameron, the satyr that had brought Louisa to camp, had suddenly sent up a distress call in some school in the middle of the Appalachin Mountains, basically in the middle of nowhere.

I won't lie, it was good to get out of camp after the previous (and rather hectic) summer and fall. After a summer of being asleep time and time again and not being able to wake up, I was more than ready to get out of all the bad memories. Plus I was probably giving Alexis nightmares with my other expidtion. But we'll get to that later.

So that's pretty much how I found myself going on a trip to the School of Nowhere, in the middle of winter, when it's got a blizzard rolling in from the northwest, with Louisa and her sister Alexis, being driven to the school by Percy's mother, Sally.

"So let me get this straight." I said. "We're going to a school in the middle of nowhere a thousand feet above sea level."

"Check." Louisa said.

"We're finding a half-blood."

"Cameron found Chloe here as well, looking for a magician. She's stronger than all get-out, but invisible as the wind, apparently. She must live with someone like Smelly Gabe, like Percy did to cover up his scent." Louisa said.

"Sooo...Percy expects us to find her, get her out of there, and get her to Camp before the next war, which could be anywhere from next week to next summer?" I asked.

"Pretty much." Alexis said.

"Oh boy." I muttered as Ms. Sally drove us to the incoming boarding school.

* * *

We arrived aroudn four in the morning, and I just snuck into my supposed dorm and set up quietly and crashed for the remaining half hour. Settling in was as bad as I thought it would be. I came with few things, not counting my bow and arrows. That wasn't necessarily the bad part. The bad part was that I was in a dorm with two other guys that I'm ashamed to be the same gender of. They were those immature guys that still did fart and burp jokes.

Thair (pronounced Tie-ear) Henderson, a big black guy that laughed at the smallest thing but could probably smack me across the dorm, played varsity football and the worst of them. According to rumor, he had vowed to get into every girl's pants by the time he graduated, and my only thought was that Louisa would break his instep before she dated him. He was in tenth grade, and recently broke his arm in the playoffs for football.

Another was Austin Slater, a guy that was shorter than me, pale, freckles, brown hair and eyes, and looked relatively boring, but hit on every girl he saw. He didn't play anything, but he acted like he was big and strong, and I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Austin was also a junior, like me, but looked like an eighth grader.

Frank was the only guy that I somewhat liked. He reminded me of Alexis, quiet, and liking to read books. In the four hours I'd known him, he hadn't said a word to me. He had an angular face and dark golden eyes that were so similar to mine I was wondering if he was a son of Apollo. He had black hair-definitely not a trait of Apollo- and was probably taller than Alexis, though they were in the same grade. Frank was the only one who was mature, of which was a massive relief to me. Then, you tend to grow up after being kidnapped in your dreams and preparing to save the world in a massive war that you most likely will die in.

I have a feeling I'll be hanging with the girls and Frank (maybe) more often than these doofuses.

My day got really interesting, however, when I got spewed on at lunch.

* * *

Louisa was sitting with Shelby and Chloe, who were now seventh graders, along with some other girl and a couple other people. Thair and a couple others were behind her, and I was at a forty-five degree angle from them, across the lunch room.

I was eating the horrible junk they substitute for food when Alexis spewed her water all over me. Frank was sitting next to Alexis, and the three of us were eating in comfortable silence until Alexis did that, and I turned around to see Thair's arm around Louisa.

Louisa, probably acting on instinct or maybe not, shoved her elbow backwards, which rammed into Thair's ribs, then 'accidentally' stepped on his foot, putting all her weight on it, probably giving him another broken bone.

It's weird how well I know Louisa.

Alexis burst out laughing. One of Thair's buddies (I guess), who was sitting behind us, glared at her and Alexis smiled sweetly at him. She looked so devilishly innocent Frank and I leaned away from her.

Alexis got up, finished, and while her back was turned, the same guy swung at her. _Ooo, bad call dude... _I thought.

She apparently sensed it, and in one fluid movement she turned around, shoved her plate into his face, and stopped his swing with one hand. I couldn't help but snicker at the guy's astonished face.

"You messed with the wrong girl. Just so you know, that girl that took out the black guy is _my sister_." Alexis said, looking sweet and innocent for someone who just took out someone who was twice her size. Her eyes were an indigo color, and I grabbed Frank by the arm and hauled him over to where I was sitting.

School. Who would've thought?

**School. What's your favorite part about it?**

**Since everyone who is reading this (I should hope) likes mythology, I have a book recomendation for you: Pegasus: The Flame of Olympus by Kate O'Hearn. ****HecateA's Mark of Athena is actually _longer_ than the real Mark of Athena and so fun to read. Go read it!**

**So, yeah, I'm grounded. It'll take a bit to get chapters up, and instead of writing up something for an hour and then publishing it, I have to go in segments. I'm doing a goal for each chapter: to get 1000 words or more, for the rest of the series. Seriously, look at Clashing Tides first chapter! That's so long... I know my author's note is kind of choppy right now, but I'll get better, I promise!**

**So, whadja think? Good start? A bit abrupt? Not one of my best, I think. To me it's almost mirror to TC, but that's me. Anybody else agree?**


	2. Languages and Old Archenemies

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

II

Jace

Languages and Old Archenemies

Why Alexis signed up for Spanish since she already knew the language was beyond me, but I found out that she could be very fluent in every language she knew, and be quite colorful at the same time.

Spanish was fifth period, so we were well into the day and had a little less than two hours to get out of the class and back to the dorms. Nothing can happen, right?

Wrong. So, _so_ wrong.

Alexis whizzed through the assignment Coach Camps, the hilarious Spanish teacher, gave her. Ron, a guy from the Philippines, tried to get out of working and cheat off of her. Alexis, catching wind of it, wrote down wrong (and apparently profane, judging from the reaction from Coach Camps) answers, and then when Ron left to go turn it in, she got out another sheet of paper and quickly wrote all the correct answers and turned it in.

Needless to say, _poor_ Ron, victimized by his own crime, got sent to a 7:00 am detention, overseen by the head of punishment.

But wait! That's not all! That's not even the _exciting_ part!

Austin's in that class, and as soon as Alexis walked in and saw him, she started screaming at him in a very strange mix of Old English, Modern English, French, Spanish, and Ancient Greek, whereas Austin just screamed at her in English.

_"Usted! Usted, hijo de una bruja de mar! Pensé que te dejé atrás!"_ She stopped and gestured to one of Austin's buddies._ "Desde cuando lo hizo munge-cubo aquí vive en las montañas de Appalachin?! Desde cuando lo hizo tonta, moronic, idiota aquí quiere aprender algo distinto de sus estúpidas, llena de algas, video juegos?! _Since_ when_, exactly, have thee decided that, and I quote, _"Je m'en fous au sujet de l'école! Quand on utilise cette merde inutile?!'' _was wrong!"

Coach Camps had the strangest look on his face, which made me wonder what exactly she had said.

Then, of course, Austin launched into a tirade, something about getting sent to detention a dozen times and yada yada yada.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, _whoa." _I said, holding up my hands and stepping between the two. Alexis glared alternately at Austin and at me. Austin just glared at Alexis. "Hold up. Alexis, I know you don't like me interfering, but I don't want you ripping apart my dorm mate."

"He's your _dorm mate?!"_ she practically shrieked in my ear. I winced, mainly because I'd never seen her so unhinged before.

"Alexis, chill, I bet Louisa could hear you!"

"But he's your _dorm mate?!_"

I sighed. Plan B. _"Alexis, come _on!_ Get a grip on yourself! I understand that you don't like him-"_ I said in Ancient Greek.

_"Don't like him" is an understatement." _she grumbled.

_"-but this is going overboard!"_

_"Literally?"_

_"No, not literally!"_

Plan QA.

I dragged her out the door, calling to Coach Camps, "Excuse us! We have a slight problem to solve!"

I dragged her still out the school, to the abandoned (and cold) courtyard.

"Ok. Shriek to your heart's content." I said.

I tried to listen. I really did. But she talked so fast and with so many foreign words I probably had an extremely confused face on.

Alexis continued to pace and rant for a good ten minutes before she subdued, looking tired and considerably colder.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now we can go back to class."

"Maybe."

"I'm cold, and I'm not staying out here much longer." I said, somewhat cross.

"Coming."

So yeah. That was a whole recountation of fifth period. What does sixth period hold? A whole lot more craziness.

* * *

Actually, sixth period wasn't half bad, comparing to fifth period, but maybe that's because Alexis and Austin weren't in the same room together.

Yeah, Austin was in that class, but Alexis wasn't, thank the gods. We'd have an instant repeat of fifth period, and honestly, I wasn't up for that at all.

The rest of the day went smoothly. Louisa caused a slight comotion when she walked into seventh period and managed to stare down every guy that was oogling her. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.

"Dude, two new girls and they're both hot and both playing hard-to-get." Thair complained once we back in the dorm.

"I don't know. I could seriously do with out _her_." Austin spat out the word 'her' like it was poison. I bit back a laugh at their idiocy and continued to do my homework from Algebra II, listening in as I did it.

Thair ignored Austin's statement. "_And_ they're both strong!" _Strong-willed, too._ I thought.

Thair turned to Austin desperately. "How do you get hard-to-get girls?" _You stand by their side when they're battling a monster and save each other's lives a couple times, that'll do it. But you're too much of a coward to do either of those._

"Seriously? Dude, you need to stop going after Alexis. Go after Louisa, but not Alexis."

"Jake told me that Alexis told him that Alexis was Louisa's sister. So I guess, dude, that Louisa's in your bad books too now." Thair snorted. "Who cares? They're hot!"

Austin spewed his soda. "Her _sister?!"_ _Can you get any more thick?_

"Duh. They've both got the really bright eyes and tanned skin." I wanted to bang my head against my Algebra textbook about a dozen times. You get tanned from the freaking sun, idiot!

Austin just looked at him as if he'd sprouted two more heads. "You sure Jake was hearing right, since Alexis just judo-flipped him? Maybe his ear was knocked off his head or something." _Ear knocked off his head? Jeez, brush up on your science, dude!_

Thair looked at him weirdly. "Why are you so freaked out about it? And dude, Jake doesn't lie. Not even to get out of trouble."

"Alexis is an only child. Her parents died two weeks before she disappeared. There is _no way_ she can have a sister!"

I stopped writing, processing that information. I never knew that about her. Of course, I knew exactly where she had disappeared to, but still! No wonder she never talked about her past.

Thair froze, too. "Jace, since you're listening in, you know anything?" he said. Ok, stupid, maybe. Observant, yes.

I looked up. I nodded at Austin. "Actually, Louisa and Alexis _are_ sisters. But they're not full-blooded sisters. Louisa and Alexis are half-sisters, as well as their brother, Percy, are all sired from the same father." Austin looked like he'd been slapped. Thair narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know all this?" Austin worded his question carefully.

I smirked. "One, we all go to the same camp. Two, Louisa's my girlfriend. Three, we've all been in some life-and-death situations together. Four, I seriously doubt that Alexis will date _anybody_, and Louisa would break your instep before she'd date you."

Austin looked at me warily. Thair just looked like he'd been hit with a textbook going at a hundred miles an hour.

"What the heck? Why would she not date anybody?" Thair blurted out.

"Why on earth haven't you punched anybody yet?" Austin asked his question at the same time.

I looked at Frank, who was smiling amusedly.

I turned to Thair. "How would you like it if you're best friend died in your arms? How would you react? She still hasn't gotten over Aiden-"

"Aiden's dead?" Austin interrupted.

"Yes."

Austin ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it, looking at the bed determinedly.

Thair looked confused.

"And to answer you're question, Austin, my girlfriend can take care of herself quite well." I smirked. "I wouldn't get too close to her, if I were you. She'd as soon as kill you as look at you."

Thair uttered a sound like, _meep._

* * *

**Anons!:**

**Guest: I'm glad you love this and think that it's awesome! I'll try to update sooner. So sorry!**

**Guest: Thanks for the character! I'll see if I can work her in. Gretta may just be one of the nicer people in the school, and mortal, but keep a close lookout for her name! I have no idea whether she'll be major or minor in the chapters to come.**

**anonymous: This is all I have currently! This satisfy you?**

**Guest: Really sorry for not updating sooner. Cookie? (::)**

* * *

**I am so, so, so, so, so, sorry! I did not mean to just shut down like that, but my parents forbade me to go on the computer because of my increasingly painful headaches. I'm sorry to say, that I hate my headaches more than I love to read! So yeah, it's bad. Again, I'm really sorry.**

**Fanfic of the chapter: You've Got Mail by HAWTgeek.**

**Series of the chapter: Erin Hunter's Warriors.**

**Question of the chapter (boy, there are a lot of 'of the chapter's): What was the first thing Annabeth said in the PJO series?**

**theHuntress101, you'll just have to see! Thank you, Gaia was Framed, for being the first to review! (::) (::)**


	3. Superstorm

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

III

Louisa

Superstorm

[Ok, you've had your fun, now one of us get's to talk! Thank you.]

Alexis and I were staying in the girls' side of the dormitories, along with a smart-aleck girl that I thought we could get along with very well, and a girl that looked quite obviously a mortal until you look at her bright, amethyst-colored, eyes. Or if you looked closely at her hair for an extended period of time under a 40-watt bulb and see flecks of bright gold strands mixed in. Ok, yeah, maybe you've seen people that have streaks in their hair that have been dyed, or people with natural variations, but it's not every day you see a girl with dark brown hair with strands of bright gold, that glint like the actual metal.

Unless you go to a camp full of people that are descended from gods.

Gods really influence the eye color more than the hair, but all of Poseidon's kids (except for Alexis) have black, curly, hair and sea-green eyes. All of Zeus' kids have electric blue eyes. All of Athena's kids have gray eyes. Most of Apollo's kids either have golden-brown or golden eyes with blond or light brown hair, with the exception of Jace, who has dark brown hair. And so on and so forth.

So far, we haven't found any Hades kids in a while, and Cameron (of whom I have yet to see) had said she was extremely strong. So unless Zeus or Poseidon had any more kids (even though it was at all possible), we were looking out for a Hades kid. And Hades kids' have either black eyes or precious rocks-colored eyes. It was also hard to tell with a Hades kid, since (so far) the only connection they had was from being from the 1940s. Nico was pale, whereas Hazel was dark-skinned. Hazel had bright gold-colored eyes, and Nico had pitch black eyes. The only thing besides the 1940s they had in common: an inner sadness that comes only from seeing loved ones die, but the enitre camp had that.

The could-be-Hades'-kid introduced herself as Irene Burton. The first thing she said? "Irene Burton, and no, I don't have colored contacts."

The other girl introduced herself Gretta Matthews. Being the odd one out, she had bright blond, very curly hair and very dark eyes, a mischeivious smile, and talked like a machine gun, only slowing down when she didn't know something, and then her fingers flew on the keyboard of her laptop. She reminded me of Annabeth in architecture mode, without the gray eyes and very curly hair.

Over the two days that we had known her, I realized that Gretta and Alexis had very close personalities, and that was why they clashed so often: five times in the same hour was their record so far. They bickered like siblings, but it got very heated every once in awhile, and then they gave each other the silent treatement for twenty minutes. I guess it's kind of hard to give the silent treatment to someone you live with.

Although Gretta and Alexis had the same personality, Gretta and Irene had absolutely nothing in common, and didn't really talk to one another unless it was a talk that revolved around everybody.

Like the incoming superstorm coming our way.

The Appalachins were snowy enough, but when it came to a hurricane coming up the East Coast in the end of fall _and_ another snow storm coming in from the northwest, we, not just Alexis, Gretta, Irene, and I, the entirety of the East Coast, immediately came to the conclusion that we were seriously, seriously, screwed.

* * *

School was cancelled for the next week, but nobody went home. The school was the safest place for us to be, hurricane- and tornado-proofed as much as possible. It was safer than anything the locals had. If anything, the school was flooded with people. We got another two girls in our room that moved as soon as they came.

Every TV or laptop or computer was on, watching the two storms collide just south of us, and I can honestly say I was truly afraid.

I went through Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina damaged the entire Gulf Coast. The population density wasn't that big, so afterwards people were able to take a step back and cry for a short period of time. Then they were able to get to work on the houses and buildings. It was the middle of summer, so they could sleep peacefully without shivering.

Hurricane Sandy was _not_ like that. It was even bigger than Katrina, and it was fall. Heat in the South can't kill. Cold can kill anyplace. There was no time to just back up. No one _could_ back up. It was a population density crisis. Six million people were in New York, New York, alone, not including tourists.

You can't fight a storm, not like you can a monster or four (been there, done that, bought the t-shirt). You can't fight a storm anymore than you can a song, anymore than you can wind.

Hope was fleeing the school faster than a leaf in a tornado.

* * *

The two days before the school was hit, everyone brought out the emergency kits, boarded up the windows, and did a bunch of other things to prepare. Layouts of the school were sent to all of the residents in the school, including how to get to the basement, which was stocked with three months worth of food and water for the entire student body, which consisted of six hundred people. Candles and flashlights were brought out, and everything that didn't move fast enough got charged (Gameboys, laptops, etc.)

However, everything that could've gone wrong, did, in the two days before the superstorm.

* * *

**Ohhh-kay. I wasn't really planning for everything to go wrong this early, but oh well. One of my better chapters, I think. I have no guest reviews, so I'll move on.**

**Fanfic OTC (of the chapter): Goode High School for Exceptional Children by The Artemis**

**Real book OTC: Gathering Blue. Really good book, second in the series.**

**Question: What was the first thing that Percy said (as in, "in the quotes")? The last question's answer is, "He's the one. He must be."**


	4. Of Staircases and Wings

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

IV

Louisa

Of Staircases and Wings

You remember what I said about everything going wrong? Never mind, of course you do. According to the recording, that was less than a minute ago, but in my opinion that was a week ago. We'll get into that later. (Let's just say, everything went wrong. Again.)

One of the many things that went wrong: the power went out.

Another one of the things that went wrong: the power went out when Alexis and Irene were in the elevator.

Another one of the things that went wrong: the power went out when Alexis and Irene were in the elevator with a monster in the school.

Oh, and one more thing: the rickety metal staircase at the end of the North wing collapsed with twenty people under it and one person _on_ it: me.

Ok, let me elaborate.

A lot of things happened at once: the power went out, and someone banged into the staircase, not seeing it. Me, at the top of the staircase, felt the staircase shift under me and grabbed at the door instinctively.

The staircase gave way as soon as my feet looped around the rail with an almighty _CREAK _that sounded like a million crickets screaming. The staircase yanked on my feet, and if my feet or back had mouths, they would've screamed aloud. My mouth on my head certainly worked with the screaming-in-pain part.

The sound of breaking wood and glass penetrated my pain-wracked deafness, and I could suddenly see, though it was all red. Tesla, in all her feiry-winged glory, grabbed the other rail and beat her wings as hard as she could, almost putting out the fire that allowed us to see.

"Get to the doors!" Tesla yelled.

I tried to see if everyone was gone, but between my awkward position of clinging to the door and the staircase and my red-filled haze, I couldn't see anything.

Suddenly I could feel the full weight of the staircase again, and I couldn't handle it. I dropped it, and with an almighty crash, the staircase landed below us.

The door handle I was hanging onto turned, and I fell halfway to the ground before I managed to turn to air (with difficulty and pain). I fell still, but slowly, and I turned solid with a slight _pop! _I landed heavily on the staircase, and the pain in my back was too much.

I was out cold before I could even whimper.

* * *

When I came to (I still have no idea how long I was out), Tesla and Jace were hovering over me, Tesla a fire in her hand as Jace worked to get me off the ground and onto the stretcher.

He finally got his arm around my back, and pain seared through me with the fire of a thousand burning suns.

Again, I passed out.

* * *

I woke again in the nurse's office of the school. Both the nurse and Jace were overjoyed to see me awake.

I groaned and sat up, ignoring their protests. The nurse tried to push me back down, and I panicked. It was too much like when I was kidnapped in my dreams. My hand flew into a ball and into the nurse's face. I somersaulted off the bed, ignoring the snap of pain that flared through my back.

Jace tried to calm me down. "This isn't like the ki- the K, Louisa! You're fine. You fell from the second story onto the staircase. Your back is one gigantic bruise. Please don't do this to me. Focus! Alexis and Irene are trapped in the elevator. Snap out of it, Louisa! This isn't like last summer. You're fine."

I sat down heavily on the bed. The nurse, again, tried to push me flat, but I wouldn't budge. She may as well try to push a mountain over.

Tesla walked in. The nurse frowned at her. "I'm sorry, are you registered here?"

"No. I know her." she said, pointing roughly in my direction.

"I'm sorry, only people registered here and the patient's relatives-"

"I'm her cousin."

Sort of true. Poseidon was Zeus's brother, and Zeus had Hephaestus with Hera, so that made her my once-removed cousin on the godly side of my family. But since gods don't have DNA, we technically have no blood relation. But technicalities can be swerved around.

The nurse frowned again. Her face is going to crease with how many times she's frowned.

The nurse apparently decided to ignore Tesla and focus on getting me to rest.

"Not gonna happen." I said, reading her face. "I've had worse than this, and I've already somersaulted off the bed. I'm fine."

"No, young lady, you are not. You strained at least one muscle and you need rest."

"I can rest when all this is over." I stood up. "Until then, don't even bother."

I walked out, Jace and Tesla behind me.

* * *

"Doctors. They're idiots who don't know how to get out of the freaking way." I defined under my breath. I heard Jace, behind me, snicker. A taloned hand gripped my shoulder, and I whipped around, karate-chopped the hand off my shoulder and kicked it in the chest into a sharp part of a desk, where the demon exploded like a dropped sack of flour.

I turned back around and stomped off. Tesla let out a slightly hysterical chuckle.

There was a crowd around the elevator doors. I pushed myself through and wrenched the door open with every bit of strength I had. Thankfully, the elevator was one of those old rickety ones that are made out of slightly-rusted wrought-iron bars instead of steel or glass. I could hear Alexis and Irene above me.

"Maybe we could wrench open the bars and climb our way down?"

"No, too dangerous. What if we fall?"

"Maybe we could scream?"

"No, I can't stand too much noise."

"What do you prefer, your life or quiet?"

Irene huffed.

"Maybe I could come up and get Irene and Alexis can climb down?" I called up.

"Yes, that's a great idea, Louisa! Let's see if both you and Irene could plunge to your deaths." Alexis said sarcastically.

"I'm going to take that as a go-ahead. I'm coming up." I stuck my head outside. "Could one of you people loan me a flashlight? It's darker than a monstrous pit in there!"

Someone's flashlight got passed up. I flicked it on and peered upwards. "Can you guys see me?" I called.

"It's kind of hard to miss you. You're the only source of light." Irene said sarcastically.

"Thanks, I really needed that information in a dire time." I said, equally sarcastic. I put the flashlight in my mouth and began to climb up.

Irene wrenched the doors open wide enough so that I could slip through.

"Get on my back."

"Oh, so now I'm playing koala bear."

"I'm not in the mood. Get on my back."

She got on my back, knowing what I'm like when I'm not in the mood.

I didn't like leaving Alexis there, but I can't support two people at once. Slowly, I made my way down.

"How do you do that?" Irene asked.

"You try scaling a rock wall that shakes and pours boiling water on you if you don't get to the top fast enough everyday and see how good you get at it. This is cake."

She let out a very small, "Oh."

I continued in silence.

I reached the bottom and deposited her uncerimoniously on the floor of the first story. Then I climbed back into the elevator shaft.

"You need some help?"

"Just shine the light on me, and I'll be fine." Alexis said, her voice echoing eeriely. I shined the light as she picked her way down.

I helped her by instructing how to turn and jump onto the first floor to she didn't plummet to the basement. Then I jumped as well.

The crowd was silent as I thrust my way through, my eyes flashing with frustration. Thair attempted to hit on me again, and I said, "Not now," and stormed off again.

I went back to my dorm, Jace, Tesla, Alexis, Gretta, and Irene following me.

I crashed on my bed face-first into the pillow gracelessly. Tesla and Alexis quickly whipped up some _sillihy _and ambrosia and whatever it is for bruises and strained muscles. Someone pulled up the back of my shirt and whistled. Another person slathered some goopey stuff all over my back, and then slathered something that smelled pungent up and down my muscles that lined my spine, and pressed gently like she was going to massage, but when she reached my lower back she pushed something that didn't like to be pushed and I gasped and very nearly screamed.

"Stop! Can't you see you're hurting her!?" Irene yelled.

"Can't you see I'm trying to _help_ her? She wouldn't hurt if she hadn't _gotten_ hurt in the first place." Tesla snapped back. "And for your information, I _can't_ see."

"What?"

I could almost hear the smirk. "I'm blind." she paused as she probed the area again. I bit my lip. "Roll over." I rolled over and Alexis quickly offered a slice of ambrosia. I took a small bite.

"Why are you all bruised?" Alexis muttered.

"You try holding onto a very heavy staircase with just lil' ole' me on the other side, helping her support it." Tesla said gently. "You try falling halfway down before she was able to control her fall and land heavily on top of the staircase. You try holding onto a doorknob while holding onto said staircase with your feet so the mo-other students don't get crushed."

"For a full minute." Jace added.

"Gods I miss a lot..." Alexis muttered.

"And dealing with Thair after rescuing you two." Jace said.

The conversation was getting fuzzy. Whatever they put in that _sillihy_ made me both stronger and sleepier. I started hearing only random snatches, until I clearly heard Jace, "Just go to sleep already, Louisa. You don't need to play hero all the time."

I didn't argue. I was too tired. I just closed my eyes, thankful, for the blissful nothingness of sleep.

* * *

**Again, I have no reviews, so I'm going to move onto other matters.**

**I hate my life. Stupid Hurricane Isaac made us all take three days off, of which now we are paying for by taking days off of Thanksgiving break. I've got two days next week, and about seven billion tests. Then of course, I'm supposedly grounded because I have a 'no grade' zero in Spanish because Coach Camps can't input anything cuz' PowerSchool is knocked out in the North Wing, and I'm supposedly grounded until it gets fixed, despite the fact that I can't do anything to fix it! But I'm not real worried. Mom's seen me twice on the computer, so I guess she came to the conclusion that there's no reason to ground me.**

**WARNING, RANT COMING: I just hate it when she thinks that she knows it all because she's older and my mother. My grandmother's even worse, always way too overprotective that her only granddaughter is gonna get kidnapped and raped. Look, I play down my looks _a lot_. I'm like Piper, though I'm not nearly as pretty, and I wear way too big t-shirts for my slim frame. Mom's bad because she thinks overall that's she's better than me. She doesn't listen. She never did, it feels like. Hurricane Katrina: did we pack up and flee, despite my pleas? Nooooo, and we get to spend seven hours in an attic that isn't mine as the house floods and the cars float (didn't know that cars could float, didya?). Last major storm: I unplugged the freaking computer for a reason! What happens when she plugs it back in? It fries! What about in Houston when I was three and managed to wreck a car all by myself? What about listening to me sometimes, like, if I can't do my homework, I know you guys can't. You have a way older education. What about jut FREAKING LISTENING WHEN I HAVE A DAM PROBLEM!? What about PowerSchool? There is NO FREAKIN' WAY I CAN FREAKIN' FIX THAT!**

**Ok, I'm done. Sorry about that. I feel a lot better now...**

**Fanfic of the chapter: The Shooting by Aphrodite-Cabin**

**Series of the chapter: The Inheritence Cycle. Haven't read it personally, but hear it's really good!**

**Question: How did Percy describe the way Rachel talks? creamtherabbit77, Sunleaves17, and trustingHim17, you all got it right! Two cookies: (::) (::)**


	5. Storms of Memories

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

V

Alexis

Storms of Memories

It seems that we're going to go in pairs. Jace had two chapters in a row, Louisa had two chapters in a row, so I'm going to have two chapters in a row. I think. Assuming Louisa doesn't glare me to death, urging me to get on with the story.

I was rather disgruntled that I had been stuck in a dark elevator for the-gods-know-how-long. During that endless time, Louisa, my sister, was busy saving twenty or more mortals by being the only peice between them and death. Tesla shows up into the picture suddenly, coming from gods-know-where, helping Louisa, and then, of course, Louisa can't hang on anymore and lets the staircase go, and then herself, and plummets to her death.

Meanwhile, I was safe and sound (and rather disgruntled still) in a powerless elevator that was probably darker that Tartarus, arguing with Irene, the could-be-a-Hades-demigod, who seemed perfectly fine in the dark, and arguing about ways to get out of the cursed elevator.

Overall, I was not a happy camper.

I suppose some of my disgruntlement (is that a word?) came from my godly great-times-who-knows-what-grandfather, Apollo, god of the sun, who, I hear, doesn't like the dark much.

I wonder why? _Maybe_ it's because he's the_ god _of the_ SUN._

Now, my sister is passed out in front of me after saving a bunch of mortals and my sorry butt, as well as Irene's, all with a strained back and a dislocated arm (which she apparently didn't notice was dislocated [how do you not notice something like that?]), which had to be extremely painful.

Now she's lying in front of me as Tesla and I are trying to set her dislocated arm, and trying not to move her back too much, which is pretty hard to do.

Also, there's the fact that there's Louisa, Jace, Tesla, Irene (who doesn't know), and me who are demigods, _minimum_, in the school. Cameron admits that he's freaking out because he's found at least three more possible half-bloods, and he doesn't know how to handle all of them.

_No, Alexis. No getting too close to touchy subjects._

I hadn't thought about her in three years. I tried not to. But setting a sister's dislocated arm-or watching it being set-was hitting way too close to home. Gretta reminded me of her, only she had dark eyes instead of bright blue ones that she had; my own eye reflected in hers. But I couldn't help but think of the short time when I was still innocent.

* * *

When I was three, Kirsten and I would bounce on my deaf uncle's bed until he'd wake up-one on either side, two little rascals that he couldn't seem to get rid of.

With matching bright blue eyes and reddish-blond hair (it darkened as I grew older), along with our sarcastic and rather demanding demeanor, my uncle got up pretty quick after seeing it was us and not my cousin, Dylan, who was known for waking his dad by scaring the living daylights out of him by jumping over him really fast, repeatedly. That is, until Dylan was careful not to jump on him and never got accidentally kicked, and he could just go and roll over and go back to sleep.

It didn't help bullies, when we were five, that we both had ferocious glares. A normal person would wither to a quivering heap of jelly if both of us were glaring at them. Bullies wouldn't mess with us. Teachers knew that we could handle ourselves. My mom and uncle knew that when we were determined, we would, one way or the other, get our way, _if_ it was reasonable.

When we were six, Kirsten dislocated her arm falling out of a tree. The ambulence came and I got to watch Kirsten scream insults at the paramedic, and I was glaring at him too, for making Kirsten suffer. Between her glare (her glare worth enough for both of us) and mine (whose was also worth enough for both of us), he was shivering, but continued doing his job. Then suddenly there was a _click _and Kirsten screamed wordlessly. I glared at the paramedic some more, who was now not meeting my eyes.

When we were seven, Hurricane Katrina hit, and I never saw my twin again.

* * *

I realized that I'd been zoned out for about five minutes and had my body on autopilot, and was now sitting on my bed with Gretta on my left, Irene on my right, and Jace and Tesla across from us on Gretta's bed.

We all had our eyes glued to Gretta's laptop, which was showing live feed from Sam Somebody, who was in Virginia.

_"As you can see, I'm standing in nine inches, roughly, of water, and this is with Hurricane Sandy 200 miles off the coast. Right now I'm in Virginia, and I'm really amazed and not really surprised at the same time at the amount of damage this storm is doing. Look at the size!"_

The screen changes to a 3-D map of the hurricane.

_"Basically, clouds stretch from Bermuda all the way to Hudson Bay and to the Artic Circle. As you can see on the map, there's a bit of an eye forming, but sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not."_

Gretta reached over and muted it.

"We're screwed." Gretta and I said at the same time. The others looked at us in surprise, but it felt natural, almost. Nobody bothered to laugh, though there were a few smiles.

"Who knows weather?" Jace asked.

"I do." Gretta and I said at the same time, again, but this time we looked at each other in surprise.

"Hurricane Katrina." I said by way of explanation. There was a chorus of "Ah"s.

"Compared to Katrina, size-wise, we're screwed. But actually, Sandy is only so powerful because of the snow storm." I said.

Gretta jumped in. "Katrina was a lot more tightly packed and was more concentrated on one small area, whereas with Sandy you have mass destruction. If you were to call Katrina a thunderstorm, Sandy would be a large summer shower that went on for days."

"Well, Katrina still had mass destruction, but I agree, it was no where near as big as this." I corrected. "The snow storm was powerful, and combined with Sandy, it just kind of escalated until the snow was part of the storm; like a plant in fertilizer, until it took over the garden."

"Ok, yeah, I have to agree with you for once. Katrina was horrible." Gretta shuddered.

"How many Katrina survivors are there in this room?" Jace said, incredulous.

"Tesla, Gretta, Louisa, and me." I said automatically. "Basically, everyone except you and Irene."

Again, another downside to living with mortals: we demigods couldn't talk amongst ourselves freely.

"Ironically, I survived Irene." Irene said. We all looked at her. I was almost afraid to ask.

"The hurricane from four months ago?" (1)

She nodded, and Jace and I winced.

We couldn't tell her that Irene was actually partly our-or rather _my_-fault, along with Percy, Louisa, Eva, Thalia, and Joann. During the stressful times, the raging thunderstorm we had going during the final battle was actually a hurricane that had half-bounced, half-raced up the coast like a bouncey ball to aid us and ended after Louisa passed out and broke the connection between us. The hurricane was called Irene.

It was silent, and Gretta and I exchanged looks. It went something to the effect of this:

Me: _Should we tell them that we're still screwed because of the storm surge?_

Gretta: _Maybe. It hasn't specified what the exact storm surge _is_ yet._

Me: _But if the storm surge is as bad as I think it will be, we won't be able to get off the mountain!_

Gretta: _If you want to tell them, go right ahead. I'm backing you, but you'll be doing the talking._

Me: _Seriously?_

Gretta: _Yup, as-_

Me: _Don't get me started on 'as a heart attack'. I've had enough death to last a lifetime._

"Then there's the storm surge. That's what got most people." I took a deep breath. "Katrina wasn't known for the wind or rain, but it's storm surge. It bypassed Camille's lines, which were the record for Mississippi. We were at 22 feet above sea level, and we still got flooded with five feet of water. If Sandy's anything like Katrina-and it is, in a lot of ways-then for a good four days no one can get on or off the mountain."

"By air?" Jace suggested.

"The winds would still be settling down after a storm like Sandy, making flight impossible until three days after the storm surge completely settled, and that'll take roughly two weeks." Gretta mumbled.

Surprisingly, everyone took it rather well. There was a long silence, and I realized that Tesla had stretched out on Gretta's bed and gone to sleep. Gretta herself had gone to sleep on my shoulder. Irene and Jace and I were the only ones still awake, and Irene was yawning. I pointed to Jace, then to Louisa's bed. I pointed to Irene, and then her bed.

Jace protested quietly, but I gave him a glare and pointed to him, then to his girlfriend. Gods, you two do everything else, sleeping by your injured girlfriend won't change much!

He meekly went to his girlfriend's bed. No, not that way, you perverts! Gods.

I gently moved Gretta so that she was laying down, and then crawled in beside her. I hadn't realized: it was getting late and it had been a stressful day. I had conciously remembered my dead twin for the first time in three years, and Louisa had held up a staircase. Tesla had reappeared into our lives, and Jace was worried sick about his girlfriend. Irene, Gretta, Jace and I were all reminiscing about hurricanes galore. Irene had been trapped in an elevator with me (and I'm pretty sure I was fairly crabby and/or desperate to get out), which couldn't have been good for her mental health. Overall, we were all stressed out by the incoming superstorm.

Can't something go right? Just once?

* * *

**(1)- I know the times for the hurricanes are all jacked up, but for the sake of the story, just go with the flow please.**

**I'm estatic. Guess why?**

_**I GOT 26 REVIEWS FOR 4 CHAPTERS!**_** Oh my gods! That means more than 6 reviews for every chapter! I don't really see how authors do it. If I had to write an entire book before I could get reviews, I'd give up.**

**Also, I'M FINALLY AWAY FROM THE IDIOTIC GUYS AND BOY-OBSESSED GIRLS AT MY SCHOOL! Whoopee!**

**Another thing: this chapter is over _1,500_ words! The previous one was over 2,200, but still.**

**My friend, xanimecrazedjojox, was actually the one who gave me the idea for Alexis having a dead twin, so I have to give that idea to her.**

**I'm just gonna shorten the fanfic and book recomendation to one or the other.**

**Book recomendation: Night by Elie Wiesel. It's really sad, but really good. A survivor of the Holocaust who is still living today wrote it about the time he spent in the concentration camp. Non-fiction.**

**Question: What did Nico do to give himself away to the Titan Lord Kronos? Hint: BotL. Heddy12311, you win last chapter's question! (::) (::)**


	6. Holy Cows

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

VI

Jace

Holy Cows

Uh, Alexis is stil recovering from whatever-that-monster-was-that-just-attacked-us, so I'm taking the microphone, since I'm next in line.

Being a son of the sun god, I tend to get up around dawn. That means I was awake before everyone else. That also means that I was kind of freaked out when I saw two copies of Alexis sleeping side-by-side. Then I realized that it was Gretta and Alexis. Gods, they look alike.

I took stock of what we had: a medium-sized can of peaches, Bisquick, cereal, bread, penutbutter, some banannas, two apples, and an orange. I quickly looked in the still-cold freezer: milk, frozen berries, frozen bread, a ham, three-quarters of a tub of vanilla ice cream.

I needed to get rid of the perishables. A light came on, and I got to work. (1)

I took out the frozen berries an left them on the counter to thaw. I peeled the bannanas and chopped them up into thin slices, then put them in a bowl. I popped open the can of peaches and drained the liquid into another bowl, and then chopped up each slice of peach into smaller slices. The apples were sliced and diced, and put into the same bowl as the peaches and bannanas. The orange I set aside for a later use.

I turned around, and Tesla was heating up the now-not-so-frozen berries. I grinned and thanked her. I put three-quarters of the berries in the bowl with the other fruits, the other quarter in with the peach juice, and the pieces of the berries that had broken of when they were frozen in there too.

I began to mash them with a spoon, until the peace juice turn a stained-mulberry color. I added a pinch of flour to make it less runny, and then I stirred it quickly. It turned a beautiful dark magenta color, and I had to ask myself where the sterotype for boys not being able to cook came from.

I asked Tesla to heat this up, and then I got the ice cream out, along with six bowls and an ice cream scoop. I went for one scoop per bowl, and if I still had something left over, do it again, and repeat as many times as necessary. Everyone ended up having two scoops. Then I poured the berries on top, and stirred until the ice cream was coated all around the fruits.

I looked over, and the bowl that Tesla was holding was steaming. My eyes lit up, and I carefully poured the steaming syrup all over the berries and ice cream.

It smelled wonderful. Now to see if the others liked it.

"I smell food." I heard Irene mumble from the other room. I stifled a laugh when the word 'food' got everyone's attention.

I gently woke up Gretta and Alexis, who looked like identical twins when they were this close to each other and both had expressions of peace on their face. Only Gretta's hair was slightly curlier, and she hadn't worn it in a braid in the day that I'd seen her. They both had the strong chin that came from determination, and the ever-so-slightly upturned nose.

Two pairs of bleary eyes met mine, and I stepped back in surprise when I saw that they were both blue. I could've sworn that Gretta had dark eyes!

Seeing the look of surprise on my face, they turned to look at each other, and then Alexis fell off the bed trying to scramble away. Any other time, I would've found that funny, but...

I looked around and saw the small case that signified contacts. I'd bet one of my father's cattle that they were colored to make her eyes stand out less.

"You're dead. Kirsten's dead." Alexis stuttered. Who the heck is Kirsten?

Irene froze when she woke up and saw the two identical girls with equally stunned expressions on either side of a bed.

"What's going on?" Irene said slowly.

"I can make a guess." Louisa stirred from her bed and sat up amidst much wincing. "The reason why Alexis never talks about her past."

Tesla completed Louisa's thought, "They're twins. Identical. Alexis thought that her twin died some time ago. And I bet that Gretta thought the same for her."

"That's the reason why they clash so much." I said, realizing it. "You two bicker like siblings because you _are_."

They both glared at me, and I stepped away from the two angry girls. If there was one thing that Louisa had taught me, it was to stay out of the way of angry girls.

"Breakfast is in the kitchen." I said to everyone else flatly.

Alexis eyed Gretta for a second and then followed everyone into the kitchen.

"It's good, Jace." Louisa said, sitting on one of the stools. I smiled weakly at her.

Alexis and Gretta were sitting on either side of the peninsula, eyeing each other in shock.

Irene was watching the two out of the corner of her eye. Even though she didn't know that if Alexis had a twin and that they were both daughters of Poseidon (how many sisters is Percy gonna get?!)...

Twin daughters of Poseidon. Holy cattle of Apollo.

I eased onto the stool beside Louisa, and said quietly, "You know we have all demigods in here?"

Her eyes flew wide. "I forgot about the fact that if Alexis is a daughter of Poseidon, so is Gretta." she said, also quietly. She laughed a little. "Looks like I got a new sister."

"What about Irene?" I asked quietly.

"Daughter of Hades, definitely. Her eyes are a dead giveaway." she looked at me as if I'd gone crazy when I snickered at her unintended pun. She rolled her eyes and punched me in the arm. "No pun intended."

"When can we tell them?" Tesla said quietly, catching onto the conversation.

"You know the rule. If they know their scent becomes stronger. We can't have that. We've already got six demigods in one small place. It's a miracle that the place hasn't blown apart." I said.

"And the two that don't know are already catching on." Louisa said, nodding to the two sisters who were discussing something quietly, then Irene who was probably eavesdropping on our conversation.

Suddenly Gretta burst into tears, and Alexis had silent tears running down her face as well, catching everyone's attention instantly. Alexis waved us off, and I herded everyone out of the kitchenette and into the living/bed room.

I gathered up all the candles I could find and placed them where ever there was a flat space I could put it on, and Tesla went behind me and lit all of them discreetly. Soon the room was lit up without using up batteries, and providing a bit of warmth.

Irene made a beeline for Gretta's laptop, which was still showing footages of Sandy. Oh yeah, almost forgot about that incoming superstorm that's making landfall around midnight tonight.

I had a sneaking suspiscion of what she was doing, so I watched the computer screen.

_Hades_. A single word in the search engine.

"You know, if you wanted to know what we were talking about, you could just ask instead of wasting the computer's batteries." I said from behind her, making her jump.

"It's not polite to watch someone without their knowing." she said.

"It's not polite to eavesdrop either." I countered. It was hard to tell in the candlelight, but I think she blushed.

"So?" she asked.

"You know Greek mythology?"

"A bit." she replied.

I looked at Louisa, who was making it obvious that she was eavesdropping. She nodded as a _go ahead_ sign.

"You probably know the Big Three: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades."

"That's about it." she agreed.

"What if I told you that they were still around today?"

She gave a bark of a laugh, startling me. "I wouldn't be too surprised, with all the other weird things that's gone on in my life. You guys said something about me being the daughter of Hades, the god of the dead?"

"God of the Underworld and riches. All things under the earth." I nodded.

She shrugged. "Why not? That's pretty minor. Never knew my father, so fair game."

"You're taking this awfully calmly." I commented.

"Not really. I'm absolutely freaking out on the inside, and I don't feel like screaming in the early hours."

I had to laugh, and Louisa let out a chuckle. Irene scooped up some more of her ice cream/berries/berry/peach juice breakfast.

"What did you put in this? It's awesome." she asked.

"Thanks. All it is is some fruits, vanilla ice cream, and some fruit juice that was heated up."

She looked at me weirdly. "Power's out. How did you heat it up?"

"Tesla warmed it up for me. Fire user." I explained when she looked like she was going to ask _how?_.

Tesla coopertively let her hand burst into flames.

"All of us here have a history with danger. Even Gretta, if Alexis thought that she was dead." I said. "Louisa here went to a Roman camp when she was three after her mother was eaten by a drakon. Then her mind was wiped and plopped into a normal life for seven years and then she came to Camp Half-Blood. Since then, she's been kidnapped, questing, kidnapped again, and then led here to get several half-bloods to one of the camps, the only safe places for us. Alexis was right at Louisa's side during the kidnapping, the quest, the kidnapping again, and coming here. I was looking for Louisa when she was kidnapped."

"I was at their side during the quest." Tesla piped up.

"And we were at your side during the sleep-kidnapping." somebody said at the door.

"Hey, Julia, Chloe!" Louisa said, standing up.

"No, no, sit down. We've got news." Chloe said.

Louisa sat back down, and Julia gave her news first. "Percy's getting worried. He's thinking that we're going to have to wait out the storm. Percy contacted Camp Jupiter, who contacted me. They want either to find the demigod and get out of there today, or wait out the storm and then the camp can come down and help rebuild. Naturally, their hoping you'll do the latter, but it's your choice."

"The Kanes basically said the same thing but that's as soon as they finish rebuilding their city." Chloe said. "They'll come down and help you get out of the mess, but they're still tracking Setne down."

Louisa looked worried a bit. Irene looked confused, and suddenly Julia's and Chole's eyes flew wide. "When did Alexis get a Mistform of herself?" Chloe demanded.

Alexis and Gretta looked startled at the visitors. "How bad is it up north?" Alexis asked instead of answering.

"Your camp is hunkering down. The borders only protect the valley so much." Julia said.

"Brooklyn House is boarding up and sealing the weather barriers, however, much like your valley, it'll help only so much." Chloe said.

"If they're using mortal means, then we're screwed." I muttered.

"How many times have we said, 'we're screwed' in the past two days?" Irene asked, and then blushed. "Sorry, that just kind of slipped out."

"Louisa, could you help me out here?" I asked.

She understood, and a water ball materialized in her hand and she slammed it against a desk and froze it. I bent the sunlight to shine into the mist and it created a dazzling rainbow. Tesla flipped a coin into the rainbow, and said, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Percy Jackson, Camp Half-Blood!"

Percy was in a meeting. "Helloooo!" Louisa hollered, stopping all conversations. All of us crowded around the Iris Message.

"How many demigods did you guys find in that school?!" Percy asked incredulously.

"Um, two so far. You got another sister and so did Nico." Louisa said.

Gretta waved at Percy. "Um, hi Alexis." Percy said, looking confused.

Gretta glared at Percy. "I'm not Alexis, I'm Gretta."

"_I'm_ Alexis." Alexis said indignantly.

Percy's face clearly read,_ Oh, great, we've got twins._

"We've also got a possible Apollo kid." I said.

"Who?" Alexis said, turning to me.

"Frank. You remember him. You were sitting next to him before you flipped that guy for swinging at you." I reminded her.

"Oh yeah." she nodded, remembering. Percy looked a bit disturbed, and Annabeth was hiding a laugh at her betrothed's face.

"Go get him." Percy said.

"Do you really want eight demigods and a magician all in the same room, Seaweed Brain? No, you don't. Rescind that order." Annabeth said to Percy, and then to us.

"We'll be waiting out the storm." Alexis said.

Percy gave a single, strong nod. "I'll inform everyone else."

That was quite obviously a dismissal, so I broke my hold on the beam of sunlight, and it shot back into place.

* * *

**2,244 words! Boo-yah! I'm getting better with the long chapters. *fist pumps***

**I'm not getting any guest reviews. Oh well. I'm back to doing daily updates, so keep a look out!**

**31 reviews on a five-chapter book! Wow, you guys are absolutely awesome! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

**Anyway, **Paul **by Weezila is a very good fanfic.**

**Question: What did Percy miss-read _gods_ as? KJtheELMtree, Sunleaves, and sfu99, you all got the last question right! It was Nico raised a black wall to save himself and the others from the Titan's wrath. (::)**


	7. You Insult Me and I Flip You

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

VII

Jace

Insult Me and I Flip You

Some of the more bored-out-of-their-minded kids braved the classroom, and unfortunately, we were some of those kids. Half the school showed up, which surprised me.

Also unfortunately, Thair was one of those kids.

I wasn't quite willing to believe that Thair would stop hounding Louisa just 'cause I told him she was my girlfriend, and I was right. Thair sauntered up to her during lunch, in the closed-in courtyard, dwarfing her small frame, putting an arm around her shoulders. Louisa tensed her arm, giving him a warning, and Thair was smart enough to remove his arm.

Thair turned to Alexis. "Hey, Blondie, I have a question. What'd you do to get in Austin's bad books?"

Alexis narrowed her eyes. She just went from slightly tense to regal-and-mad-Reyna, something you don't really want to see. Reyna from the Roman camp, looking regal and mad? You're done for. Alexis almost completely mimicking her stance and looking regal and mad? You're still done for.

"Was that an insult? I _sure_ hope that's not a dumb-blond insult. I'm a lot of things, but I am _not_ dumb." Alexis fixed Thair with a measured look. She some how managed to look regal, calm, intimidating, and mad all at the same time.

Thair flashed what I thought was supposed to be a charming grin, although it looked more like he was having a facial seizure. "Why would I insult a sweet thing like you?"

_Uh-oh. You're__ dead_. I imagined the sad _pew pew pew_ noise that comes from Mr. D's Pac-Man game in the Big House when Pac-Man dies.

Thair seemed to realize that he'd said something wrong when Alexis, Louisa, and Gretta (Kirsten? No clue.), in that order, lined up in front of him. He didn't even choke twice when he saw the twins on either side of Louisa. He choked once, and then started coughing his lungs out.

Alexis and Gretta/Kirsten (?) had on mirror evil grins. I felt sorry for Thair, since I knew what was coming.

"You know what else is sweet?" Lousia asked Thair sweetly. She had a devilish gleam in her eyes.

He put on his 'charming' smile again. "You?"

"Nope!" Alexis and Gretta/Kirsten said in sinc.

"Revenge." Lousia uttered the word in a low gutteral growl, and I backed up. I had never heard that tone from her before.

"I see that you haven't met my other half before. May I introduce, Kirsten Shantel, my long-lost identical twin," Alexis said sweetly.

Some others around the courtyard were being drawn to the scene, and some in the crowd gasped when she proclaimed that. Others were like, _How on earth could you not have noticed that by now? _Some others were looking confused like, _Wasn't her name Gretta?_

I was laughing a bit at the scene before me. Thair was not one to give up, was he? Especially after a girl.

"You never did answer my question." Thair said.

"That's for me to know and for not to find out." Alexis smirked evilly at him. "You know you couldn't get anything out of sweet, defenseless, little ole' mea" she said and cocked her head suggestively and fluttered her eyelashes. Gretta was snickering at her twin's antics, and I was two seconds away from full-blown laughter from how untrue that was.

Thair was apparently having similar thoughts. "You certainly aren't little."

Alexis pounced instantly. "Are you calling me fat? You can ask Jace, I don't take to being insulted very well."

"The last one who did that ended up being smashed into the ground." I said helpfully. I was fighting a smile at her cleverness. She was leading Thair seductively into a trap by telling obviously untrue things that, turned around, could mean two different things, one neutral and one bad.

Thair instantly started back-tracking. "No! I didn't mean that, I just meant that you aren't tiny. You're tall, and slender, and beautiful-"

I was now biting my lip to see how wonderfully Alexis was at playing her game. She was now cuddled up to him 'basking' in the praise. "Really?" she lowered her lashes seductively.

"Yes! And kind and pretty and brave..." I kind of droned him out and watched Alexis play her game. She was angling herself, her hand on his wrist. _Better watch out, Thair. One false move, and you're on your back wheezing._

I've been known to take chances. Louisa's been known to take chances. Alexis' been known to take chances. Percy's the master of taking chances. But I don't think anyone could've taken a bigger chance than Thair just did.

He.

Kissed.

Her.

I saw it in slow motion: the free hand instantly flew to a ball and into his nose, and the one around his wrist tightened, and she braced herself against him (he was taller than her by several inches), and using the momentum and off-balanced-Thair, she bent over quickly and pulled him over herself.

He landed flat on his back, gasping and coughing up his nosebleed.

A collective gasp went up from the crowd, and then it dissolved into laughter. He just got judo-flipped by a girl! The star quarterback, judo-flipped by a _girl_!

Louisa bent over him for a second, and whispered in his ear. He froze, and his eyes widened in terror.

Kirsten finished off the session by saying with a wide grin, "Karma's a *****."

I couldn't agree with her more.

* * *

**Anons!:**

**Guest who made Kirsten possible:** I seriously love the character that I've made Gretta/Kirsten. Sorry I changed her name! I seriously love her.

* * *

**Ah, well, I almost made it to a thousand words. 964. **

**I am so sorry for the late update, I kind of had a writer's block on this one. I came up with this on the spur of the moment, and I was like, "Let's show them who's boss," so, I did. Was this good enough?**

**20,000 League Under the Sea is a great book! I'm thirty pages into it and I'm already in love with it!**

**QOTC: Where's a gender-mix up in the Sea of Monsters? Hint: it's in the Princess Andromeda part towards the end. sfu99, KJtheELMtree, and AssassinoftheShadowDragons got the last question right: he read it as dogs.**


	8. Baseball Bats

**A/N: Hey, KJtheELMtree/Beth M here. So I'm not the person you usually expect. Since Louisa's been really sick lately, I asked if I could write a couple chapters for her and she said I could. This probably completely sucks, since I'm not nearly as good as she is, but… I'm giving it a shot.**

* * *

VIII

Jace

Baseball Bats

The next day, in accordance to Murphy's Law, everything that could go wrong… did.

First, Thair and Austin showed up at the girl's dorm seeking revenge.

Second, the storm hit.

I was sitting on my bed watching TV when Thair and Austin came back from… somewhere, talking- or, in Thair's case, ranting.

"I can't believe she turned me down!" he raved. "How can any girl in this school resist _moi_?" He flexed his biceps and winced, grabbing his bad arm which was still in its sling.

"Geez, Thair," Austin said. "I don't like her friend one bit- let's say we have a history. But her? Thair, that Louisa chick could take both of us down and not break a sweat. She could probably even take Jace down without a sweat."

Realizing who they were talking about, I first winced, then laughed, remembering Louisa's duel with Jason not long before.

They plotted for about half an hour, then each grabbed a baseball bat and said they were going outside for a little ball.

"In this weather? Not likely," I remarked, stretching.

It was true. The wind had been getting so bad over the course of the day that only a few people could go outside without getting blown over, and all of them weighed more than two hundred pounds. And besides, it was cold enough that even in a parka a kid would start shivering in minutes.

Frank came in the room, rubbing his eyes. "What am I missing?"

I pointed to the TV, where a weatherman was predicting the blizzard to hit by the next morning. "It's bad."

"Obviously." Austin glared at us and disappeared into the hallway, followed closely by Thair. Frank looked at me. "What's up with them?"

"Being p.o.d at Alexis and Louisa. I think they're headed to their dorm right now."

Alarmed, he said, "We'd better go help!" Seeing my expression, he added, "The girls, not the two of them."

* * *

We got there right as the two of them barged into the dorm, only to find Alexis, Louisa, Kirsten, Irene, Chloe and Tesla crashed on the beds, watching the storm's path on Kirsten's laptop.

"Where's Julia?" I asked. "It's just that all of us are here, but she's not…"

Kirsten flicked her hand. "Not sure."

Thair was obviously confused that his plan had collapsed. Austin dropped the baseball bat.

Alexis started and hit a button on the computer, cranking the volume up. "-repeat, those living in Appalachia must immediately check that batteries, candles, food, and clean water have been stockpiled. Those people in low-lying areas have already been evacuated to higher ground, and from this moment on do not step outside unless you are wearing multiple layers of clothing, boots rated for subzero weather, and a parka, and you must be carrying a flashlight and some sort of whistle or flare in case you get lost."

What the woman said next was lost as Julia raced down the hall into the dorm room, toting a duffle bag. "Storm's gonna hit in an hour don't worry I figured we'd all get stuck here so I grabbed clothes for everyone." She unzipped the bag and pulled out clothes for three days for me, her, Chloe, Tesla, and surprisingly, Frank, Austin, and Thair.

I looked at her.

"What?" she demanded. "Worst-case scenario got me this far!"

The lights flickered.

I glared at Thair.

He held his hands up in innocence, as confused as me.

Then the lights went out for good.

It would be a long time before any of six hundred kids saw light from an incandescent bulb.

* * *

**Anons!:**

**GwmKp: Thanks for sticking with me throughout my sickness!**

**GwmKp: Glad I'm an inspiration? I'll take that as a compliment...**

**Ellie: I'm glad you like my characters and the story, and sorry I couldn't write something myself.**

**GwmKp: Ooo, yikes. I had to be hospitalized once because I had stomach flu and broncitus all at the same time. I missed ten days of school and went to four different doctors.**

* * *

**A/N: Congratulations to sfu99, Gaia was Framed, and a Guest for getting the answer right! It was when Polyphemus was unable to tell the difference between a teenage girl and an adult male. Speaking as a teenage girl, I'm slightly offended.**

**Virtual cookies to all of you!**

**So, yeah. Hoping Austin isn't OOC.**

**A note from Louisa4533: Hey guys, I'm relly sorry I wasn't able to write this chapter, and I'll be posting myself soon! Thanks for filling in for me, KJtheELMtree, and I owe you a favor. I just had my first full day of school yesterday, so I am getting better. I hope to see you guys again soon, and I think you're awesome for getting to almost sixty reviews on 8 chapters! Virtual cookies for everyone! (::) (::) (::) (::)**


	9. Letting Go

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

IX

Alexis

Letting Go

I bolted upright and almost started screaming. Then the memories of the past two days flooded back to me, and I clamped my mouth shut and shakily got out of bed.

I struck a match on the board and held it close to the nearest candle. Based on my water-proof watch (a neccessity for Poseidon kids), it was around one in the morning.

I walked to the bathroom with the candle in hand, and set it down on the counter. I leaned over the sink, feeling like I was going to throw up. I knew Tartarus hated me and my sister's guts, but I didn't expect him to get this strong, this fast. Strong enough to haunt me about my past.

I'm fairly sure that there wasn't another person in the universe with a worse background.

* * *

My first memory: coloring in a car. Seems harmless, right? Let's see. I'm on a hill. I'm alone. I'm strapped into my car seat. My grandma and twin are in the gas station, paying for the gas. Four lanes of busy traffic rushes below me. Very harmless. Except for one thing: the emergency brake isn't set.

I'm three. I'm sitting there, coloring happily, when I look up and see the bushes moving. Wait a second, bushes don't move!

And then I realize that the bushes aren't moving, _I_ am. The car is rolling down the hill towards four lanes of busy traffic. I knew that Grandma had forgotten to do one thing: pull up the stick.

I struggled. I had to get to the stick. I managed to get the first clasp of my car seat undone, but I can't get the second. I'm pushing and pushing on the red button, but there's no click, signaling I'm free.

The car rolls faster, and tears start rolling down my eyes, and I scream in terror. I push more franctically on the button, and then I forget about it. I start trying to worm my way out instead of pushing on the button.

I scream even louder, keeping up the constant racket. There's a man in the car in front of me. He has dark skin and black hair. His dark eyes are wide in fright, paralyzed in fear. Suddenly the car swerves, and my neck whiplashes, and I stop screaming for a moment.

I curled up into a ball and braced for impact. There was a huge _bump_ and scraping of metal the tore at my ears, and I clutched at them, and I started to wail.

I opened my eyes. The car and I had swerved into thorn bushes, causing the screeching sound. We had gone over the curb, causing the huge _bump_.

I started to sob in relief. (1)

* * *

Fast-forward three years. First grade. Nighttime. Much in the same position I'm in now, standing at the sink with a candle in my hand, shivering, and looking like I'm going to throw up. Only this time, I'm writing.

I wrote in shaky, sloppy handwriting: _I had the drem agan. The sam 1. The girl was laughing with the ston voys. The rok went over my head. It is scary. Wy do I all ways hav the sam drem?_

* * *

Fast-forward another year. Second grade. Hurricane Katrina. August 29, 2005. I was in my ducky pajamas. I was seven.

Mommy carried us through the rising water. It was swirling like a pretty river, but it wasn't blue. I couldn't see Mommy's feet.

Suddenly Mommy slipped on something, and Kirsten and I clutched to her, scared. But Kirsten's hands slipped on Mommy's neck, and since Mommy was still unbalanced, she couldn't catch Kirsten as she fell into the swirling water.

I struggled in Mommy's grip. Why wouldn't she let go of me?! Why wouldn't she let me go after Kirsten?! But Mommy wouldn't let go of me.

And the last I saw of my twin for seven years was her limp body as it swirled rapidly away from us. And then she vanished.

* * *

One month later, Mom was transferred to Nevada, so that we could still keep a steady income. Grandma and I followed three weeks later.

I was sent to James Elementary Public School, which was a nice name, but not-so-nice on the inside. It had bullies up the yazoo, teachers that didn't trust seven-year-olds when they said that they survived Hurricane Katrina in an attic along with five adults, two dogs, and three cats, with three dogs on the roof and a chainsaw and three small bottles of water. (2)

I learned to fight real quick. The neighborhood I lived in wasn't the best on the block. I learned the hard way that you learn out to dodge really well and know how to knock out somebody with one swing or you die real quick.

I have never forgotten my skills. (3)

* * *

Fast-forward four years. Sixth grade. I was twelve. The age I got abducted, escaped, started camp, found out I was a demigod, and promptly got abducted again. Joy.

It started with me meeting Joann. She was my height, maybe a bit shorter, with brown hair and peircing blue eyes. She had seen me reading the duo Eon/Eona, and we started up a fangirl talk about the books. (4)

About two months later, the school was attacked by a hairy-thing-with-sharp-claws-and-pointy-teeth. That was when Joann told me I was a demigod, and I said something to the effect of, _"You're insane,"_ and ran for my life, Joann right behind me. I managed to sprint the two miles from the school to my house, and actually managed to out-run the insane Joann.

Two weeks later, my house burned to the ground. I escaped with my life, my money, and the clothes on my back.

I ran and ran until I ran into a guy, knocking both me and him to the ground. He sprang up while I just laid there panting and coughing alternately, and then I passed out from smoke inhalation.

Two days later, I wake up in a bed that wasn't mine, and the guy-I don't know. He kidnapped me, held me against my will, and I think he was going to do something to me that I wanted no part of.

I walked from Albany to New York, NY. Then I was walking through the strawberry fields on Long Island, started walking up the hill, and you know the rest.

* * *

I jerked out of my memories. I hated thinking about my past, because every time it always made me frustrated. If I had managed to struggle out of Mom's arms, could I have changed things? Would my parents still be alive?

I couldn't help thinking about the song Eva, Louisa and I made up on the spot in June, six months ago. I was a wreck then, too.

_I stand here proud  
__Singin' my heart out_

I sang (more like quivered) two lines from the song. It was amazing how much I had changed, how much my surroundings had changed, since then.

_We stand here cryin'  
__Lookin' for answers to our pain_

Kirsten came up behind me and sang another part of the song. I don't know if it was because we were full-blooded sisters, or if it was because of Apollo, but she said the exact lines from the song.

"'Sometimes there isn't an answer. Sometimes you just have to force your way through it,'" Kirsten said softly.

"'Sometimes you just have to wait,'" I finished the quote. I ran a hand over my face. It came back wet from tears. "Just to let out the pain."

I looked at Kirsten in the eyes, and I saw the same brilliant blue as I did when I looked in the mirror. I saw uncertainty, grief, pain, and relief. I was fairly certain that we couldn't be told apart right now, including our eyes.

"We're back together." I said the three words with finality. We wouldn't be separated again. Not like last time. Not by death. Not by pain.

"We're back together," she said softly. It was like some cheesy movie, but we hugged each other and didn't let go. I felt drops drip onto my shoulder, and I realized that I was doing the same thing to her.

* * *

**Anons!:**

**GwmKp: Happy late birthday! |*| (present) So glad you got an account!**

* * *

**1) This actually did happen to me when I was three, and I still remember it. I've always hesitated to get in a car since.  
2) Again, this actually did happen. I was in my neighbor's attic with five adults, one child which was me, two dogs, and three cats.  
3) Again, this really did happen. I learned to fight real quick in that neighborhood, and my friend can attest to that. She nearly got her head smashed in with a textbook because she startled me once. True story.  
4) The same thing happened with a real friend, though it was with the Percy Jackson books instead of Eon/Eona, although it is a good duo.**

**Ok, special thanks to KJtheELMtree, for writing the last chapter. Sorry I didn't post part three, but I was already half-way through this and it was some of my best work. I made this chapter extra long for you guys cuz I've been MIA for awhile.**

**Also, get this: I'm seriously questioning whether or not it's December right now, because I'm typing this up in shorts and a t-shirt. With the house opened up. It's like seventy-two degrees down here, and I'm starting to think we have two seasons: spring/fall and summer.**

**life's Compllications by kuntakintae is a very good fanfic! Go read it!**

**Thanks for being so patient, and I hope this makes up for it!**


	10. Cardboard and Duct Tape

**Ok, so I don't do ANs at the top very often, but this is VERY IMPORTANT.**

**IF YOU WANT A REASON FOR MY BEING MIA UNTIL APRIL, READ THIS: As soon as I start school again, I'll be MIA for four months. My parents think that I'm spending way too much time on here, and my goal this Christmas break is to finish this book as quickly as possible. This means multiple updates a day. Easter break, assuming I finish this book by the 3rd, I'll upload the next book and get as much as possible done, and then I'll finish it on the sixth of June, which is exactly a year from when I posted Clashing Tides on this site. That's an outline of what I'm aiming to do, but I have no idea if I can accomplish it.**

**As of right now, I've almost seventy reviews. I'm freaking out. Reviews keep me motivated, constructive critism is wonderful, and flamers? I've got Louisa and the twins on my side. That's a lot of water to douse flames with. However, I really need to finish this book ASAP, so if you don't review on a chapter because I'm updating so fast, that's ok! Just make sure that you keep up with the story. It gets kind-of convoluted (sp?) if you accidentally skip a chapter.**

**Now I just wrote two hundred and eighty words for an AN, on with the story.**

**Louisa: By the way, since the author is rather frantic right now, I'll do the disclaimer: she doesn't own anything. Got that? Good.**

X

Alexis

Cardboard and Duct Tape

It was awkward, to say the least, when everyone woke up in the morning. Austin and Thair were still there. Now that Thair had been flipped by me, he steered clear, and I think this is the one and only time that I was glad that I got in someone's bad books. Austin's still asking to be punched, but now that Thair's avoiding me, it's one less clown I have to deal with.

Like the last two days, Tesla went around lighting the candles. Since I'd already lit a candle from my time in the bathroom, she didn't have to use her powers and risk being seen with a flaming finger. Then again, she wasn't noticed when she was flying with flaming wings, so a flaming finger is kind of minor compared to that.

Kirsten and I stuck to each other like glue stuck two sticks together for the morning. Louisa made us separate when she sent Kirsten and Chloe on a mission to find more food, batteries, clothes, mattresses, and to say who all was in the dorm.

We were again joined at the hip when she came back with her toting a small wagon heaped with stuff. A lot of cardboard. Irene and Julia knew instantly what the cardboard was for, and apparently, so did Thair. The other three boys were still just like, _Why in Hades do you have a wagonfull of_ _cardboard? _

"No offence, Jace, Frank, but us girls are getting a little too weirded out with boys in their personal sleeping space," Julia explained.

"So," Chloe finished. "We're separating the two genders!"

The next two hours involved a lot of duct tape, cardboard, cursing, furniture-moving, stubbing toes, and some laughter as Louisa accidentally taped her hair to a piece of cardboard and almost brought down the entire temporary mass of cardboard, duct tape, and wax (idea from Kirsten to secure the cardboard to the ceiling).

During those two hours, it felt like we were uncooperating siblings. A few people got into quarrels while the rest of us continued to work and listen and laugh. Then the arguement would be resolved, and not two minutes later someone else would get into a debate with who-knows-who on the other side of the wall on how to duct tape cardboard to carpet, with two other people helping, and all contradicting each other. I wish demigods were allowed technology for frivolous means, because I would've taken about seven thousand pictures during those two hours, it was so hilariously funny.

By the time the room was done, we had changed the plans from just one wall to two when we realized that we had a lot of extra cardboard. So it was the girl's room by the dorm's door with a half-bath in there (why there was a half-bath by the door I have no clue: blame the people who designed the building), and it was a lot bigger than the boy's bedroom.

The living room, which we had a bunch of small bean bags and a large couch spread in various areas of the room with the laptop by the wall which connected to the kitchen. The wall on the opposite side of the laptop had a doorway which led to the bathroom, and the doorway to the kitchen was right next to the laptop. We had managed to get a knee-high, round, circular table on the basis of 'we have eleven people in a dorm meant for no more than four, give us the freaking table', which actually worked, surprisingly. If we wanted to eat together or see how bad it got, we always sat on the floor around the table. The meeting room was always occupied by somebody. Thair and Austin were always off in their own little world of football and chicks, so we demigods got a lot of time to form a plan if anything went seriously wrong.

Then you had the sturdier wall, and on the other side of that was the smaller room since there were only four boys as opposed to seven girls. In the kitchen, the pennisula was now extended by an ironing board (where did that come from?), and was now big enough for four to eat at it comfortably, and was often the hiding place of people who wanted to have a private conversation.

It was still cramped, having eleven people in a dorm, but not nearly as bad as it was before.

We actually found out everyone's parentage before they went to camp. Thair and Austin were asleep in the boys' bedroom, and suddenly Irene had an amythest with crossed leg bones behind it glimmering over her head, and Frank had a golden arrow. Kirsten's was special though. Instead of just getting a trident like usual, the trident was bent in such a way it looked like a 'K'. I guess people were having some problems on what to call Kirsten: Gretta or Kirsten.

* * *

At around ten at night, about half an hour after the triple claiming (and the camp thought that Louisa and Eva's double claiming was weird), Frank spoke. See, thing is, Frank doesn't talk. He can, but he doesn't. He's spoken three times to me, and all three were just 'hello's.

"What's it like, being a demigod?"

All the experienced demigods froze, mid-chew.

I sat forward and swallowed my food. "You really want to know, Frank?"

Frank hesitated for a second, but then nodded.

"Do you want it summed up into a sentence or do you want experiences?" Louisa asked.

"Experiences," Irene jumped in, curious as well.

"My mother was eaten by a drakon when I was three, I went to Camp Jupiter three months later, I was on a protection detail when two daughters of Zeus and I were attacked by a the-gods-know-what in the middle of school when I was six, I battled in the Titan War when I was seven and watched my best friend die in front of me, my memory is wiped for no apparent reason and I'm plopped into a normal life for seven years, then I'm attacked by a hydra, went to Camp Half-Blood, kidnapped by Streak, Falcon-Headed-Hologram, and Guy Number One-"

Chloe snorted with laughter at the names for Sadie, Carter, and Walt.

"-prevented World War III, and united two panthenons with Alexis, who was kidnapped with me. And that was just my first fourteen years. I'm now sixteen and gone on three quests and gotten out of three kidnappings, one of which was in my dreams from last summer." Louisa reeled off her experiences bluntly.

"Needless to say, being a demigod is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways." I put in.

Irene banged her head on the table and muttered something like, "Joy. Another mess I've gotten into. Yay."

Frank was looking like he was sorry he asked.

**1,192 words! And I got a lot accomplished in this chapter.**

**I have gotten five hours of sleep. From 4am to 9am this morning I have slept, because I slept over at a friend's house and she wouldn't let me fall asleep because I don't sleep over very often. I'm actually surprised I managed to get this done in under two hours.**

**Question of the chapter: What was it in the labyrinth that made Percy and Annabeth worry about Tyson and Grover? Actually the question in chapter seven wasn't that simple, guys. It wasn't Annabeth being thought a guy or Grover being thought a girl. This one was hard. Percy refers to Blackjack as a 'she' and 'her' instead of 'he' and 'him' as Blackjack is referred to for the rest of the series. So no one got it! Sorry guys.**

**Until tomorrow, since I'm crashing in less than fifteen minutes,**

**~Louisa**


	11. Collapse!

**Ok, so I don't do ANs at the top very often, but this is VERY IMPORTANT.**

**IF YOU WANT A REASON FOR MY BEING MIA UNTIL APRIL, READ THIS: As soon as I start school again, I'll be MIA for four months. My parents think that I'm spending way too much time on here, and my goal this Christmas break is to finish this book as quickly as possible. This means multiple updates a day. Easter break, assuming I finish this book by the 3rd, I'll upload the next book and get as much as possible done, and then I'll finish it on the sixth of June, which is exactly a year from when I posted Clashing Tides on this site. That's an outline of what I'm aiming to do, but I have no idea if I can accomplish it.**

**As of right now, I've almost seventy reviews. I'm freaking out. Reviews keep me motivated, constructive critism is wonderful, and flamers? I've got Louisa and the twins on my side. That's a lot of water to douse flames with. However, I really need to finish this book ASAP, so if you don't review on a chapter because I'm updating so fast, that's ok! Just make sure that you keep up with the story. It gets kind-of convoluted (sp?) if you accidentally skip a chapter.**

**Now I just wrote two hundred and fifty-seven words for an AN, on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or KC. How many times do I have to say that?**

XI

Louisa

Collapse!

My back still ached like Hades had been born from it, but I was managing to hide it fairly well. Or, at least, Alexis hadn't commented on it. Then again, everyone's demanding everyone else's attention, and that means that some people were paid attention to more than others. If that makes any sense.

Beyond the putting-up-the-two-walls-with-much-cursing event, nothing much happened to me. Well, besides the sloppily-formed eye of Sandy touching down not fifty miles from our area. But besides that, nothing much happened until about two o'clock on the day after the walls, about an hour after the eye touched down.

Alexis and I were on the kitchen's pennisula, devising strategies on how to get out if something went seriously wrong. Then I heard a very loud crash coming from the other side of the building. I didn't know what had happened, but Kirsten burst into the dorm with a bunch of weird-looking objects in her arms and yelled, "The north wing's collapsed!"

I was up and out of that kitchen faster than I thought I could move, Alexis right behind me.

I suddenly realized what the weird-looking objects were and hugged Kirsten. "Are you sure you aren't a descentdent of Hermes as well?" I grabbed the snow suits and tossed them to the other demigods, and shrugged one on myself. Then I grabbed one of the hard hats with lights and put it on, as well as snow goggles. Then I tugged my own boots on. My back burned, but I ignored it.

Thair and Austin came out of the boys' bedroom to watch the scramble. "What are you doing?"

Kirsten stopped struggling to get her foot in her boot for a second and stared at them. "What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're a mixture of construction workers and skiers without the skis." Austin said.

I resisted the urge to do a facepalm.

"We're going to help the people get the others out of the north wing," Irene said slowly, like they were mentally retarded. I was starting to wonder if that was pretty close to correct.

"Wouldn't they stop you? You're just kids!" Thair said.

"Like you aren't?" I challenged. "Like Alexis is and has gotten out of three kidnappings so far? I dare you to come up with something that dire and say that you won't go for helping the other kids. My mother was murdered when I was three. Kirsten and Alexis were ripped apart from each other at the age of seven because of a hurricane like this." I stared Austin down. "Remember Aiden who died in her arms," I pointed at Alexis. "I could care less if you two lust after me, because I could kill you both with a single movement. But for _once_," I pleaded, "Just _stop_ with the feud with Alexis! Just _stop!_ My back already burns like H-" I almost slipped and said _Hades_,"hell, I don't need to deal with your petty quarrels as well and give me a headache! Especially right now!"

I later learned from Jace that I looked like a panther in human form, and I quote, "dangerous and beautiful".

I turned on my heel and walked out, the rest of the demigods following without hesitation. I barked out orders as we ran down the hallway and stairs, into the lobby and into the pile of rubble that used to be the north wing.

"Julia and Chloe, you're going to be the gofers in this expedition. We're relying on you to get whatever help you need to get clothes, food, water, and medical care out here ASAP. Julia, Chloe, set up a make-shift hospital in there. Recruit the rest of the seventh graders if you have to, you're the biggest class. The hospital will need sheets, matresses, food, water, and anybody who can spoon-feed somebody soup. I suggest that you seek out the seventh grade first, then start yelling at the rest of the people. Everyone is required to help, and if they don't want to help in the hospital, send them out there to help us," I ordered the two.

"Tesla, get the kitchens working and get anyone and everyone who is able-bodied, manly man or not, helping, whatever you have to do. Go get Julia and Chloe. We'll need every fire-ready space up and ready to burn."

"The kitchens have two old-fashioned stoves that have six burners each," Kirsten piped up.

"Good," I nodded approvingly. "Tesla, tell them to drag out those and dust them off. They'll be put to use tonight. For now, you are in charge of the kitchens. As the only fire-user we have right now, we need you to keep the fires going."

"Alexis, Kirsten, I want you on the far in of the north wing and un-bury people as you go. Alexis and Kirsten will work their way from the end and send the injuried people to the nearest person, who will help them to the lobby, where the hospital will be. If they have trouble lifting a slab of stone, you all go help them, whoever's free. I don't care who," They all nodded their understanding.

"The rest of you, spread out and find people. I'll be trying to slow the wind down so that we won't be blown away, but I won't last long. We have forty-five minutes, max. When I say _go_, we move. We have to get two hundred minimum people out of the north wing, alive or not. Julia, Chloe, we're counting on you. Set up a clock telling how much time we have left. Send someone out to refresh us with a small bowl of soup or something. We're in for a Boreas-type cold," I said grimly.

I concetrated, and the wind went from howling to whistling. _"Go!"_

Julia, Chloe, and Tesla scattered, and the rest of us burst out of the doors that separate the lobby from the north wing to be met by devatating ruins and cold, cold snow.

**First chapter of the day! And I'll be posting more since I got twelve hours of sleep last night instead of five. Thank the gods.**

**Anyway, make sure that you read the previous chapter! I did post a new one over the AN.**

**Book of the chapter: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. She actually got her start on Fiction Press, the sister site to this one!**

**Until the next chapter,**

**~Lou**


	12. Codes

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XII

Louisa

Codes

Despite my slowing the wind down significantly, the wind still rammed into me like two hundred Romans battering down a fort. Which believe me, is a force to be reckoned with.

Jace was the first to stop and start looking, then Irene. Frank stopped soon afterwards. I stopped and Alexis and Kirsten went all the way to the end.

I soon realized why none of the teachers were moving out here to help us. All of their living quarters were in the north wing, as I soon found out when I discovered Coach Camps under a slab of rock. Normally he was so full of life and cracking jokes and asking "What?" and sounding like the duck on the commercial for Aflac and cracking us all up, that it was scary to see him so lifeless. I may not have had him for a teacher, but I liked him, as one of the few non-idiots in the school.

"Got one down! Camps!" I hollered. Frank helped me carry Coach inside. I was surprised how fast things were being set up. There was already five matresses set up for patients. It startled me when we opened the door that a loud buzzer went off, and we were instantly surrounded by kids, all dressed in sweats and tennis shoes.

There was a sudden hush as everyone realized that the lifeless form was the most life-filled teacher in the school. I set Coach down gently on the nearest mattress.

"Ok, look, people. I don't like this storm any more than you do, and I hate it even more now that Coach was freezing in the ruins, but guess what. We need to be strong, because trust me, it will only get worse. Once the forty-five minutes are up, and everyone's feeling better and not quite as cold, then we can cry. But right now, in this storm, I need you, _Coach Camps_ needs you to be strong." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Please."

I got about fifty half-nods and some straightening, and some girls wiping their faces. "Also, Lauren, you may want to wash your face. Runny mascara doesn't work for anybody." There was some weak laughter, and Lauren smiled at me, and one of her friend produced a tissue. Why her friend carried a bunch of tissues around was beyond me, but I'll have to take that up after we're all done.

"I'm going to back out there, and if you just can't hold it in any longer, go find my friend Tesla. If she's not frustrated, she's a really good friend to go cry on." I said gently. I got some swallows from some of the girls. "Are any of you willing to come brave the storm with me?"

A couple boys manuvered their way to the front. I nodded curtly to them and tossed them the hard hats, goggles, and bright orange snowsuits. "Suit up. Just pick a position. It's best to pair up with somebody, either someone here or someone already out there."

Irene and Alexis burst in, setting the buzzer off again, supporting a young girl between the two of them. They were flocked by the kids just as I was, only this time the girl was semi-conscious.

"I need lukewarm water _now!" _somebody yelled.

I didn't stay to find out if she was going to be ok. I just forced my way outside along with the boys.

I dug through the snow with my gloved hands, back in my original spot. I scraped part of a jacket, and I started digging frantically. I recognized the person. "Russel Moran down!" I yelled. I scraped away the snow around his mouth and nostrils. I was alarmed to see that he was blue in the face. "Code Blue!" I yelled. I had three boys at my side instantly.

See, Code Blue right now means hypothermia and unconsciousness. Code Red means unconsciousness. Code Yellow means hypothermia. Code Green means conscious or semi-conscious. Code Black? We're hoping we won't have to use it. It means that the person is dead.

I hauled Russel up and put one of his arms around my shoulders while one of the boys did the same and another picked up his feet. The last went ahead and opened the doors. "Code Blue!" he shouted over the buzzer.

Three girls came up and set bags of warm water around Russel. I didn't know if he'd be ok. I just knew that I had to keep moving.

* * *

In the next half hour, I uncovered about twenty people. By the fifteen-minute mark left of how long I can last, we had fifty more hardy kids on the team, and they each either discovered or helped haul in fifteen other kids and teachers. Since three kids could help haul in one person, that roughly equaled out to two hundred and eighty people. Two hundred and eighty people that were not dead. We had a lot of Code Blues and Code Reds, but the one Code Black that we had was the most devastating.

One of the guys, his name was Marc, I think, discovered him. He called it Code Blue. The twelve-year-old nurse wasn't sure Ethan, the patient, would pull through, and then checked his pulse and counted the beats.

There was one. And then there was none.

One of the eigth graders, her name was Emily, threw herself on Ethan, yelling at him to wake up when the nurse hung his head and mumbled Code Black before he broke down crying. I couldn't blame him. I took off my hard hat and goggles and handed them to a nearby student who was also blinking back tears.

"Emily," I said gently. I grabbed her shoulder firmly and yanked her around to face me. "Emily." She looked at me, and I shook my head, my throat too tight to talk. "Ethan's gone," I whispered.

Emily yanked herself away from me and shook her younger brother's body. I grabbed her and hauled her away from her brother. "Emily, let him rest in peace." My voice cracked. "Just let him rest."

Emily punched and kicked, trying to get away. I recognized this. Denial. "No! You all think he's dead! He's not dead! He's not! He's just cold and unconscious! He's not dead!" Emily yelled, struggling, trying to get to her younger brother. She started sobbing, and she banged her fists against my chest. "He's not." She broke down, wrapping her fists in my snowsuit, sobbing into me. "He can't be."

I hugged her tightly. I was short, and I was a full head taller than her. "I'm sorry," My voice cracked again. "I'm so sorry."

And I let my tears flow and drip onto her matted brown hair.

**I hope your Christmas will be better than mine.**

**~Lou**


	13. Heroes

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XIII

Jace

Heroes

Ethan's death shook us all, but apparently Louisa hardened herself, because when the buzzer went off for the forty-five minute timeline, Louisa was still going strong. It made me wonder if that water-tornado-fire thingy that she did at the end of summer last year increased her powers, or expanded her limits, at least.

Emily was sent to Tesla by Louisa personally. Tesla seemed to know what happened immediately when Louisa came into the kitchens, practically carrying a distraught and sobbing eighth-grader, trailed by Emily's friends of whom were also distraught and worried for their friend.

When we throughly searched the north wing again and found nobody, we all went inside.

Louisa went and crashed in our dorm, which was what everyone expected of her to do. But I wasn't quite ready for Louisa's leadership to be passed to me now that Louisa was out of commission. How the heck did Louisa do this? She made it look so easy!

"Um, ok," Yeah, real smooth. The famous words of Jace Weylore. "We don't need the kitchens heating up so much water anymore, since we've stopped bringing people in. Somebody needs to do a headcount to make sure we aren't missing anybody, and if we are, rescind the first order. Then everybody suits up again and goes outside to search for them."

"The winds have picked up again, though," somebody protested.

"_If_," I glared just hard enough to get the point across, "we find somebody missing, then we can discuss that. But right now, we need a roster of all the students in the school and those that have taken shelter here from the storm, and we need a tally of the injured and-slash-or unconscious. Frostbite and broken bones count under injuries. How is the principal?"

"He's able to stand up for no longer than five minutes," somebody from the back yelled.

"I don't need Mr. Trosclair to stand up, I just need to know exactly how many people are supposed to be in this building, students, staff, and residents. Names would be preferable." I specified.

The same person from the back nodded in understanding.

"While we're doing roll call, we need everyone to be as quiet as possible. Since the north wing has now collapsed, we need to reconfigure the dorms so that we won't have too many people camping out in here. I understand it will be cramped, but there isn't much I-we-can do about it. Got all that?"

A resounding, "Got it!" rang through the halls.

"Good. Now let's set to work!"

* * *

Thankfully, I caught a break for once and everyone was here. I got a punch to the nose when I woke up Louisa, however, so that she could be present for roll call. It hurt, to say the least.

"Lou-i-saaaa," I drew out her name, shaking her gently. "Louisa!" I shook her a little harder.

Louisa's fist lashed out so fast I could barely register it before I got punched in the nose. "Ah! Louisa!"

"Call me one more time, Weylore, and I'll cut out your tongue," Louisa groggily threatened.

I had to smile at her hard-headedness. "Seriously? A last name? Boy, I'm insulted."

"You should be," she mumbled into her pillow.

"...That was sarcasm."

"So was mine," Louisa grumbled.

I shook my head at her. "C'mon, Louisa. We're doing a roll call to make sure we got everybody."

She bolted upright. "Why in Hades did I not think of that?!" she cursed and got out of bed and bolted for the door. I shook my head in amazement. It was like she had never been asleep.

Back to the present. Mr. Trosclair was sitting down in a chair while Louisa read off the names. Needless to say, everybody was there.

I will say this to you all: I judged the mortals harshly. After saving the mortals' butts for awhile, you tend to think that they're just Mist-covered idiots that scream at the least thing, and then when you save them your the one blamed and get hunted down. Not fun. Just ask Percy. Or for that matter, ask Alexis or Louisa.

Then you get into a situation like this, and you realize that the Mist can't screw things up too drastically, and you can see the mortals for what they are. They're just like us, just on a lesser scale. They get into arguments, but unlike Percy and Thalia, they won't be battering each other with water and lightning. They feel loss, just like us. They are powerful in their own way, not like, "I'm going to destroy a building with my powers!" but more subtle. Some of the people I've met in this school are sly, cunning. Some get their own way, no matter what, and not by threats either. Sometimes I'm wondering if a mixture of Piper and Annabeth was possible, but some of these people have achieved it. I mean, sure, some of these people are absolute idiots, like Thair, but we have some idiots as well. Or people that have made some idiotic choices.

The mortals can be just as herioc. They _have_ been just as herioc today. These people followed Louisa with absolute faith and trust, and maybe some it was just out of comfort that someone was taking on the tough situation. Out of the two hundred and ninety-three people that we rescued from the ruins, there was only one death, a record for demigods. Out of the seven hundred and thirty-six students, thirty-nine staff, and two hundred and twenty-six people that migrated to the school, only one hundred and forty-seven were seriously injured. That's about fourteen percent of the population in the school.

And to think that everyone helped, and that 'everyone' were all kids. Kids that rescued adults. Not something you see everyday.

* * *

Back at the dorm, after we divided who was going to whose dorm, Louisa sat down, looking a little lost.

"Louisa? What is it?" Kirsten asked.

"I forgot," Louisa answered.

"You forgot what?" Julia asked, flopped on a beanbag and looking absolutely exhausted.

"Look at the date."

Irene looked at her watch. So did everybody else who had a watch.

Kirsten bowed her head, her bright blond curls matted and dirty were swept up in a messy ponytail. "December 24th," she announced sadly.

Alexis instantly understood what Kirsten meant. "Ethan died on the day before Christmas."

The silence and sadness in the room was oppressing.

**My chapters are reflecting my mood right now. Sorry they're so depressing. I'll try to cheer up the mood in the next chapter.**


	14. Ticked

XIV

Louisa

Ticked

Two days passed. The winds slowed by a fraction of a bit, and the sleet wasn't pounding on the plywood-covered windows so hard.

Most of the people from the north wing had recovered, albeit a bit bruised. Afterwards, we found out that Ethan hadn't died for nothing: he saved two little kids. Emily was comforted slightly. We demigods had had a silent conversation. When we got out of this, and we would, we would round up Nico and make him take us to the Underworld so that we made sure that Ethan got into Elysium.

He deserved it. Ethan died a hero. He was held in high esteem for the whole school, and I'm sure that as soon as we got out of here and the East Coast recovered, Emily's house would be overflowing with flowers and thank-you or sympathy cards.

I mentioned the slowing wind to the others. We had a meeting: me, Jace, Alexis and Kirsten, Mr. Trosclair, and Emily. Emily was there only to represent the now-most-important family in the school. I would've preferred that she be with her friends, but she seemed to be a bit like us demigods: stubborn beyond reason.

Now that I look back on it, I think she knew, or at least had an idea of who we were. Or rather, _what_ we were. She knew that we had seen death before, and hardships that she'd never known

"Should we go out there?"

The question hung in the air like an anvil hanging by a thread.

"Yes, Jace, we should. But who?" Mr. Trosclair's shoulders were slumped. I suspected that he would retire after this year. Or even after we get out of here.

"I would," I offered. Soon enough, the other demigods said the same.

"But why?" Emily demanded, slamming down her hot chocolate on the table and standing up at the same time. "Why is it always you? Why can't it be someone else?" The silence was broken by the _drip, drip, drip_ of Emily's hot chocolate dripping onto the floor.

I gave her a measured look. "Because, you have already faced death. So have I. I would not wish what I have seen before on anyone in this school."

Emily reeled backward, falling into her seat. I reached across the table and took her hand in comfort, and made her _really_ look at me. I let all of my pain and grief show. Leadership _was_ a burden, as heavy as the roof of the world. Some people coped with it better than others, but I don't know a demigod that wanted leadership and still stayed on our side. Seeing death was just another anvil to carry. Pain was something that I couldn't and still can't explain.

Alexis, Kirsten, and Jace's postures betrayed the sympathy for Emily as she broke down, crying.

Mr. Trosclair was up in a second, as was I. Only he took her crying the wrong way.

"What did you do to the poor girl?!"

I wrapped my arms around the younger girl and glared at him as she sobbed into my shirt. My glare was rather ruined by the tears pooling in my eyes that I refused to let go. I guess I hadn't put up my barriers again and was still letting my grief show, because he leaned backward. "Some deal with pain better than others," I said, still glaring at him. "Some people have seen more than most and still deal with it. _This_ is why I lead, so that someone else doesn't bear the pain. But there are some things I just can't stop."

I wrapped Emily in my jacket and held her closer. "Because I rely on others just as much as they rely on me. But there are some things I just can't stop, no matter how much I want to," I nodded to the sobbing thirteen-year-old in my arms. "And I wish I could just wipe the memory her brother's death, and take it away from her. But some say that wouldn't be morally right, and as an ex-amnesiac myself, I couldn't do that to her anyway."

I gave him a steely glare. "But I promise you, every person that has hurt my friends has paid. So next time you accuse me of hurting someone else, I _strongly_ suggest that you keep it to yourself."

I saw Jace out of the corner of my eye look slightly alarmed for Mr. Trosclair. I couldn't blame him. If I wasn't comforting Emily I would've had him up against a wall with his collar clenched in my fists, even though he was a good foot taller than me and in a wheelchair right now (his leg was apparently broken. Now tell me, how do you not know that your leg is broken?).

"We've done it before, with the winds a heck of a lot stronger, Mr. Trosclair. I'm pretty sure that nothing will go too wrong," Jace said, and I mentally face-palmed. Thanks for jinxing us, idiot.

Mr. Trosclair visibly swallowed. He nodded slowly. Not slowly, as in _I'm-thinking_-slowly, but more of an _oh-my-gods-she's-gonna-kill-me-if-I-move-too-fast_-slowly. Which was all too possible for me right now. The principal had seriously ticked me off. If you hadn't noticed.

* * *

Emily followed us back to our dorm. Well, actually, Emily was practically carried by me as I trudged my way back to the dorm. I put her in my bed and soothed her until she went to sleep.

Thair and Austin had finally come out of whatever hole spawned them, and, of course, Thair went straight to sit by me, Jace on my other side.

I warned him right up front. "I am _not_ in a good mood right now, so I suggest that you keep your arm off my shoulders and quit sending me seductive looks that makes you look like you're having a facial seizure."

I thought I heard a suppressed snicker from Jace and I elbowed him. He discreetly rubbed the spot I elbowed him, and I didn't hear the noise again. I smirked a small smirk in satisfaction.

"We're going outside," I announced. I felt like a knight at the Round Table, but instead of five other knights (I think), there were eight, ten if you count Thair and Austin. I don't really consider them to be my knights in shining armor. Or rather battered armor if you go look at our armory.

But back on track. Three simple words that were quite oftly said together now had a huge meaning behind them.

"All of us?" Tesla asked. The unspoken word _demigods_ hung in the air as all the demigods added the word that held so much power to the end of the question.

"All of us," I confirmed. "Suit up. We don't know what's going to be out there." All the demigods knew I meant both ways: suit up, as in, get your snowsuit, and suit up, as in, grab your weapons.

After we all got dressed for the cold (yes, Thair and Austin, too), we trudged to the lobby. Suddenly Thair had to go to the bathroom and Austin was dead-on-his-feet tired. I was mentally rolling my eyes. I had half-expected this way sooner, like, when I said, "All of us" and didn't single them out as being excused. Pfft. At least I _tried._ Didn't work too well, but I tried.

So it was sudden when I walked outside into the bitter cold, when I realized that the wind wasn't howling like a wolf at the moon.

Then the freezing silence was shattered as the giant oak-paneled doors shut themselves and storm spirits up the gazoo appeared, stirring the air into hurricane-force winds again.

I cursed. No wonder we hadn't been attacked, the school had been on lockdown, and of course Tartarus was possessing the monsters so that they could strategize a bit better, like bombarding us all at once instead of one at a time.

I had been right. There _were_ dozens upon dozens of monsters that had smelled the demigods. But they had waited patiently for us to venture out again, and for no witnesses.

We were surrounded and trapped by storm spirits, unfriendly hellhounds, snake-women, and a half-bat-slash-half-women thing that I had no idea what the heck it was.

But then I realized, a beat later, that the bat-lady and hellhounds weren't intent on hurting _us_, but rather the storm spirits. I figured that this would probably be the first and last time I would ever fight beside a hellhound, but I was ready for the experience.

The two armies clashed in a whirl of dust, wind, and fur, and then we jumped into the fray.

**Ok, people, I sure hope you guys are reading this, because heads up: I'm going MIA until I have Easter Break. Which is in April. Which is four months away.**

**When I get back, I hope that I won't have a bazillion emails in my mail box full of [New Review]s and people saying, GET ON AND UPDATE ALREADY, DAMNIT! Well, sorry, you should've read this.**

**This is going to be the last update for awhile (I may be able to sneak on and update at school), but until then, :(. Bye.**

**One last thing: In the Throne of Fire, Sadie Kane makes a reference to Sweeny Todd's razors being curvy. They aren't that curved, so...? Can anybody tell me why?**


	15. Newcomers

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XV

Louisa

Newcomers

I have no idea how i made it out of that battle alive. I just know that im still alive. My sword was no longerjust a sword,it was an arc of something to be afraid of,something that even i had no idea what it as to the stormspirits. It was, quite simply put,something that the storm spirits feared

But, unfortunately, I had no idea what it was, or I'd've ended it a whole lot sooner.

I slashed and cleaved until all of my anger and frustration and sadness had disappeared, until I was fighting for my life and the lives of my friends and basically the entire student body. Yes, I know that I was also fighting for good-for-nothing Austin and Thair, but unless I felt like being ripped to pieces I needed to fight.

I vaulted over a dracnae, slahing all the way (to all you readers out there, DO NOT let Dakota near eggnog and then begin singing 'Jingle Bells'!), and then promptly ducked a swing from a hellhound. I slipped on a patch of ice, went into a perfect split (which hurt like all Hades), and saw the hellhound take out a _dracnae_that was goung to stab me in the back. I nodded to it, and then promptly flattened myself to the ground as a storm spirit mowed over the spot where I had been standing.

I was in the middle of wishing that we had more backup than hellhounds or that I was somewhere else entirely, maybe even back when I hadn't re-discovered that I was a demigod. Then again, just about anything is preferable than this.

But anyway, back to what I was saying: I was in the middle of wishing that,and then ,a yell of surprise echoed through the area. I was instantly on defense, but for once, we had caught a break.

"Sadie!"I exalimed.

The blond-haired sixteen-year-old smirked. "Shall we join the party?"

* * *

After the Egyptian magicians showed up, the battle was a complete route. Storm spirits and _dracnae_alike were slaughtered under the enforcements.

But it wasn't really the battle the we had problems with: it was explaining how we found two dozen people who apparently had _not_ been blown away by the wind from the hurricane, _and_survived without shelter. Another problem was how on earth did three dozen people get so severely hurt, as in, cuts and gashes that didn't simply come from falling on their face.

I hated lying to people that just gone tbrough a trying time, but frankly, they would be a heck of a lot more scared if they knew what really went on around them.

The last thing we needed was mass panic. Then again, I doubted that much could surprise anybody at the school anymore, which was sad, since there were pre-teens in that school still.

We ended up changing things around again, only this time it was people that were switched around, not furniture.

"Piper!" I yelled. Piper had been one of the first half-bloods to greet me,and I looked at her as a close friend/sister.

"Hey, Lou," she said, gently squeezing me. "Jump off any buildings lately?"

"At least the person watching me didn't turn gray if I did," I retorted.

To those of you who are confused: when I first came to camp, Piper, not knowing me and wanting to show off, [Hey!] jumped off the porch of the Big House, which is about twenty feet off the ground. Piper landed safely, but me, being extremely competitive back then, refused to be shown up, thus, jumping off a building.

But now that enough time has passed so that we can joke about it, and we often use it as a greeting, like now.

Fortunately, Piper was the only half-blood out of the twenty people, but she was still dressed in the traditonal clothes of the magicians ang had a staff and wand as well as her normal dagger, Kapotris, strapped to her waist. I guessed that she was one of the ones of this year's exchange program between the camps and the House of Life.

After we re-arranged the people, we were down to nine in our dorm: Thair, Austin, and Chloe left, and Piper came in. Still cramped,but not as much as before.

I suddenly realized how tired Piper looked. "What on earth happened?"

She smiled wryly. "Opening a portal does that to you."

"Oh," I nodded in understanding. Piper wasn't used to channeling big magic, like opening a portal, but my guess is that it was a test. Even with whatever god or goddess (or lack of, as energy can be drawn from several objects) that was helping her, it was still very taxing.

"Here, you can have Chloe's bed. When you wake up, we'll see about food." Irene guided Piper to Chloe's ex-bed, to whch Piper didn't even protest. She just flopped on the bed and was asleep instantly.

Most of the demigods followed suit.

**I AM AWESOME! You gotta admit it. The one time I get on the computer for twenty minutes, I update two chapters!**

**Thank you xanimecrazedjojox for putting up with my PMs to her account. I found out that I can access the web on my nook! Therefore, I can type up stuff on my nook! Sadly, I can't publish it, but whenever I get on the computer, I will get publish as much as possible! Deal?**


	16. An Argument With Mi Papa

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XVI

Alexis

Argument With Mi Papa

If there's one thing I've learned in my short career as a demigod, it's that very few places can be considered safe. I certainly didn't feel safe where I was, but it created the illusion of being free, something I had sorely wanted since Louisa had fallen into a coma.

Where was I?

Well, to be put bluntly, I was on the roof of the school. Don't ask how I got up there.

To be specific, I was sitting at the edge of the roof, indian style, in jeans, sneakers, t-shirtt, and jacket. I can honestly say I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to freeze myself out of my thoughts. I was certainly successful with the freezing part, but out of my thoughts? Not so much.

So I wasn't really paying attention when a man appeared a couple feet behind me.

"The sea never has liked to be restrained, but I can honestly say I've never found one of my children going this far," the man pondered.

"Yeah, well, somethings are worse than heights." I grumbled, disgruntled that he could just appear there, but I had to get past the kitchen staff and go through the attic and (shudder) spiders.

It was silent for awhile, except for the cold wind tearing through my hair.

"Why?"

"_Mi nina_-"

"No! I am a lot of things, but I am NOT yours!" I burst out at him. "_Mi papa, el grande dios a la mar_, such an honor to be your _hija_," I spat out scornfully. "Tell me, _papa, donde esta la grande en usted_, hmm? Where is the honor in being the daughter of someone who allow their daughter's house to be burn to the ground with their _mama y abuela_ inside? To take away the only _familia_ she knew? To be separated from her twin for what she thought was going to be forever? Now I'm trying to save you gods' butts, and NOW you show up!" I yelled, enraged.

"Alexis-" Unfortunately for him, I wasn't done being mad at him yet.

"Where is the honor of letting your daughter's memory be wiped who-knows-who, and has already helped save the world twice? Where is the honor in being your daughter? And then you go and name me 'defender of mankind'! Shouldn't that be Louisa, the person in the prophecy? NO, that is NOT me! All I am is just a descedent of Apollo who can see random people's pasts and cn do nothing about their pain! Do you know how hard that is, to see what's wrong and not be able to come up with a soultion? I HATE you!"

As soon as I said that, I broke. I remained standing, but I was shaking from crying. Now that I think of it, any other god probably would've blasted me to dust without even letting me finish my rant. And yes, I am implying that that would've been really rude.

"Oh, _mi nina_..."

Poseidon came cautiously to me for two reasons, one) the roof is slippery and two) he may have been afraid that I'd lash out again. When I didn't protest him being close to me, he wrapped me in a hug.

I stiffened, but it was hard to feel like it wasn't Percy hugging me, but really, during that entire rant, it was hard to not look at him and feel guilty, because Poseidon's eyes were exactly like Louisa's and Percy's, the two people I loved the most.

Percy also had that kind of hug that made you wanted to either drop everything and cry as long as needed, or it would just leave you with a sense of peace for the rest of the day. Or there was his protective hug that made you fear for whoever hurt one of his friends.

It made sense that Poseidon would have that first kind of hug, too, considering he was Percy's father. My ADHD wondered if it was possible that hugs were inherited. It definitely qualified for Poseidon and Percy.

"_Mi nina_, I am so sorry," he whispered.

"Is it always your kids that have the worst luck?" I mumbled into his shirt.

He chuckled. "It sometimes appears that way, doesn't it, _nina_?"

I nodded, wondering what he meant by 'sometimes'. "_Si_, _papa_."

**I have to admit, these are both really, really short, compared to my normal length. I'll go back and add something later, probably, just to give that extra _oomph_.**

**My favorite author in the past two weeks has been Jessica Day George, author of the Dragon Slippers Trilogy (one fanfic on that), _Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow_, and the _Princess of_ Series. (ex.: _Princess of the Midnight Ball_, _Princess of Glass_, and _Princess of the Silver Woods_) _Princess of the Silver Woods _is her newest one!**

**Translations:**

_Mi papa, el grande dios a la mar_- My father, the great god of the sea

_hija_- daughter

_papa, donde esta la grande en usted_- father, where is the great in you (formal, not friendly, Spanish has you polite and you friendly, Alexis used you polite to try and anger her father [not always the best idea])

_mama y abuela_- mother and grandmother

_familia_- family

_nina_- girl (again, it's supposed to have a ~ over the 'n')

_Si_,_ papa_- yes, father

**Note that these are my own translations (I'm rather proud of myself), with help from the English-to-Spanish dictionary in my room only once (!). May or may not be accurate. Recently noticed that online translators jack up _ser_ and _estar_, which mean essentially the same thing, a form of be, but are for different things. _Ser_ is for permanant things (basically, I don't feel like going into detail), where as _estar_ is for the location of say, a watch. A watch can be picked up and moved, and therefore, is not permanant.**

**Anyway, see ya (hopefully) soon!**


	17. The Last Argument Was Bad? Pfft

**I don't own PJO or KC. Capice?**

XVI

Alexis

You Think the Last One Was Bad?  
Try This Argument

Louisa commented on my shakiness when I came back down from the roof. "What happened up there?"

The good thing about being blood relations: we share, all of us share, a weird kind of connection between each other, and that just multiplies when you get in several life-and-death situations. Even without the telepathic connection that demigods have with their brothers and sisters, Louisa could read me pretty well.

Well enough to know what happened just by looking at me. "Oh."

However, I wasn't as good at reading people as Percy or Louisa, and they're both extremely shut off becuse of their pasts. It just makes it harder when a) they aren't willing to open up and b) can kill you very easily. Yes, I can do that as well, but that doesn't make it any less scary.

If you asked me, I wouldn't be able to tell you who was her best friend in the Roman camp, or if she had already had her first god encounter. I couldn't even tell what that heck her birthday was.

I mean, sure, I could probably find out if I wanted to, but so far I haven't quite managed to get that power under control, and if I really feel like being honest with myself, I'm afraid that if I try it out, something will go horribly wrong.

* * *

I'm surrounded by fighting. I could recognize a younger Jason fighting Krios about thirty feet off of my nine. I looked around for more familiar faces, and I saw Gwen, Dakota, Bobby, even Octavian. There's a little girl about seven or so, with glossy black hair whirling around her face. I almost yelled in shock that the girl was Louisa.

A slightly older girl pressed her back against Louisa, about eight or nine.

"You ready?" the girl asked.

"Set," Louisa said. She paused. "May be the last tim we say this, but if it is, let's go down fighting."

"Ditto," the other girl said.

And so they fought, back to back, slashing and whirling through the masses of monsters, and occasionally spitting out hair from their mouths. If it hadn't had such a serious setting, I might've laughed a little.

Disaster struck. A monster got too close to the girl, and a _dracnae_stabbed ruthlessly into her abdomen. She yelled in pain.

Louisa turned around and reacted immediately. Suddenly, every monster within a ten-foot radius vaporized. "No!"

"Keep going," she rasped. "Just bcause I went down fighting doesn't mean that you can. Stay strong."

Louisa frantically tried to stem the bleeding and get ambrosia out of her pocket at the same time. "Makenna!" Louisa yelled in frustration. "No, don't do this!"

"Promise me. You'll fight to the end," Makenna's words were slurring.

"I-I promise. I swear on the River Styx. Now eat this!" Louisa thrust a square of ambrosia into Makenna's face.

Makenna pushed the square away weakly. "Go, Louisa. I'll see you in Elysium. Remember your promise."

"Makenna, if you die, I will find some way to bring you back and kill you very painfully. So. Eat!"

Louisa realized that Makenna's hand was slack against her arm. "_Makenna!_" she howled.

"No!" I bolted upright in bed. Eight pairs of eyes stared at me. Seven were confused. One pair was ashen and angry.

"Alexis," Piper asked slowly. "What was that?"

"How could you?" Louisa whispered, looking ashen and pale. She was shivering and sweaty.

"I don't exactly have a handle on that yet, Louisa," I said defensively. Wrong thing to say.

"Then find a handle, or make one," Louisa hissed uncharacteristically. Her eyes were darkened with a mixtute of anger...and fear?

Louisa disappeared before I could say anything. I got up and threw some clothes on before walking out as well.

"Lex, what went on back there?" Kirsten tried to catch up with me. The old nickname brought a pang to my heart, but I gritted my teeth and ignored it. "Lex!"

I stopped and spun around so suddenly, Kirsten almost ran into me. "Listen, Kirst, and listen _real_well: Louisa is dangerous, enemy or not, and I just made her mad because of a stupid power I can't control. I need you to stay away from me until Louisa is back to normal. So get away from me!"

I turned and ran, remmbering every step of the way how shocked the others' looked, and how betrayed Kirsten's face was when I yelled at her.

I'm sorry, my twin, but it had to be done.

**Heads up, this chapter is MAJORLY important for the rest of the series. In fact, as I told trustingHim17, it could be considered the climax of the entire series.**

**No, I'm not back for good, but until summer, expect my updates to be severely skewed.**

**~Lou**

**P.S.- HOLY CRAP, 100+ REVIEWS IN 17 CHAPTERS! :DDDDD You guys are awesome. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**


	18. Panicking Galore

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XVIII

Jace

Reeling

To be put bluntly, I was panicking.

Sure, I'd seen Louisa and Alexis argue sometimes, shoot, I'd seen them beat each other up. Irene apparently didn't know how serious this was because really, it didn't look that serious. But it was. And I was panicking, something I wasn't accustomed to doing.

_How could you...I don't have a handle...Then find a handle, or make one...Louisa is dangerous, enemy or not...Get away from me!_

At the moment, I was still reeling from how dangerous, how cruel, how...broken...Alexis had looked. She looked hurt, lost, angry, dangerous, and fearful. Both the girls had looked fearful of the other. But Alexis's fearful had to do with Kirsten. She knew as well as I did that if Kirsten was in the way, she could get hurt. Severely.

Kirsten looked stunned. I guess she didn't know that her twin was pushing her away for her own good. Maybe Alexis's words hadn't really sunk in yet. Maybe she was struggling with the fact that her long-lost twin that she had just found again was pushing her away. I don't know. Whatever it was, she was frozen, her mouth hanging open, her arms in the same stance as when Alexis turned around and ran.

I half-ran, half-walked to Kirsten's side. "Hey," I said. She remained frozen. "Kirsten, come here." I pulled her into a hug. It seemed that she went from being frozen to shattered, because she burst into tears and promptly started hiccuping.

"What's the matter with her?" Irene said quizzically, confused.

"Irene, that argument was bigger than you realize," I said softly. "The fact that Alexis would push away her twin suggests that Alexis is expecting trouble from Louisa, who is more powerful than you might have accepted. You, as a Hades child, are more powerful than you might accept."

"No, I'm not! You guys are the real deal!" Irene argued.

"Then why is your palm filled with hellfire?" I said, smiling a bit at her shocked face. Kirsten stuttered in her crying and looked up. All eyes turned to Irene's hand, which had a tongue of black fire hovering over it.

Irene stuttered. "How- I- You- What?!" Which set off a peal of laughter from everyone else, and coaxing a slight giggle from Kirsten.

"You've got hellfire in your palm. I would recommend extinguishing it before it burns the school to the ground," I said calmly.

"Um..." Irene said, staring at her hand as if it were an alien. A couple of the others backed up.

"Which means closing your hand into a fist," I explained.

Irene tried it, and instead of going out, her fist was encased in the purplish-black flame. She yelped and backed up. That elicited some snickers from the others. Irene looked like an over-enthusiastic Statue of Liberty.

"Trying blowing it out," Piper suggested. Irene looked at her like Piper was crazy, but did try it, to no avail, which set off roars of laughter at the face of Irene, with her cheeks blown out like a pufferfish and redder than a garnet.

Kirsten tensed. Next thing I know, we're all soaked to the bone, and the hellfire is still on Irene's fist. "Kirst-en!" I complained. She snickered and poked me hard in the arm, which will probably leave a bruise, and all the water on me jumped into the sink. I rolled my eyes, but thanked her.

Irene shook her hand, now flat with only the one flame again, and the hellfire followed her hand. "Oh my freaking gods! Is there a password I need to know for this to get off my hand?" Irene moaned. "Persephone! Underworld! Charon! Open Sesame! Hades! Oh my freaking gods, get off my freaking hand!"

"The magic word!" Frank suggested.

"_Please!_" Irene yelled in frustration. The hellfire went out. "Frank? Did you know that I seriously love you right now?" Irene breathed.

Frank looked like a cow hit with a shovel.

* * *

Louisa came back about two hours later, looking tired and drawn, but still angry. I followed her into the girls' bedroom.

"Louisa, you know this is just part of the prophecy?" I asked softly in the girl's room. I was sitting on Piper's bed.

Louisa took off her jacket and boots. "Yeah, I know."

"And you're letting the world be torn apart by the sea and sky?"

"Is it your prophecy?" Louisa snapped.

"Yes, it is," a new voice said at the doorway. I turned around to see Kirsten. "It's _everyone's_ prophecy. It affects _everyone_. Some people it affects more than others, like you and Jace and Alexis and me. And it _will _happen, just as it was written out in the prophecy. At least, it'll happen if you keep going like you are."

"How do you know?" Louisa said softly, startled by the conviction in Kirsten's voice.

"You don't like my sister because she inadvertently exposed the most tender part in your life so far. Therefore, you shouldn't like me because I told you that your most tender part in your life is still yet to come," Kirsten said.

I swallowed. I suddenly understood the prophecy-though it's cryptic message could still be interpreted as something else. I forced my words out to tell Louisa who (what?) she was looking at. "Alexis can see the past." I swallowed again. "Kirsten can see the future."

Holy. Cows.

Instead of Frank looking like a cow hit with a shovel, it was Louisa looking like a cow hit with a shovel _extra-hard_. Any other time, I would've laughed.

Now?

I'm still _holy-cow_ing. And panicking. So really, I haven't changed a bit from the beginning of the chapter.

**Yay! I managed to update this week! :D**

**Oh, almost forgot: I finally got around to reading the Maximum Ride series! It was awesome! May be doing a MRxPJO crossover as soon as I finish this series and the rest of my fanfictions. Cuz' trust me, it's hard to keep up with this, Dragon of the Depths, We Made It, What the Hades?, and probably something else I've forgotten. In the order I'm finishing: this series, We Made It, What the Hades?, and Dragon of the Depths (last two are interchangable). Then I'll do one of my ideas and an original story as well.**

**Question of the Chapter: In all of the Percy Jackson books (short stories included [ex.: The Sword of Hades, The Son of Magic, etc.]), which is your favorite? Mine is the Last Olympian!**


	19. Run

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XIX

Alexis

Run

I'm sure my eyes were swirling just like the winds around me, but frankly, I was too mad to care how intimidating I looked. Louisa's past is a touchy subject, I got that; I've _had_ that for quite awhile now. Louisa's memory was fully back now, apparently it had been restored during that two-month sleep (long story that for right now I refuse to re-tell). Now Louisa-the _real_ Louisa-was back, and someone I don't know. It made me wonder about Louisa, how she had taken charge so many times in her life.

I remember how..._old_ she had looked when I first told her about the prophecy. She had seemed broken, a lot more broken than now. Louisa's been in a lot of situations before Camp Half-Blood came into play, of that I was sure, so why had she looked so terrified when I woke up? Had that been her worst memory? Or just one of the worst?

I was mad at Louisa for pushing me away when I just plain didn't have the power under wraps. I was just glad that Kirsten wasn't saddled with a power like mine. My life seems to revolve around the saying 'no gift comes without a price,' which just aggervates the Hades out of me.

I stood at the edge of the roof, back where I had been when I'd ranted at Poseidon. That argument had been preferable compared to Louisa. The two-and-a-half-story drop loomed below me, and I could just see a streak of blue sky, illuminating the destruction below me. I spat a piece of hair out of my mouth.

I hated my hair. I hated hurricanes. And I hated my powers. Not necessarily in that order.

* * *

I snuck back into the dorm around two in the morning, when everyone was soundly asleep. I grabbed my sleeping bag, my knives, and my knapsack, which had five drachmas and twenty dollars, some beef jerky, water, an apple, and some dried fruits, rolled it into my sleeping bag, and tied it all together with a ribbon I found lying around. I also took advantage of my Egyptian training and wrenched open a Duat locker and shoved my bedroll into it. My hunting knives strapped to my belt, I wrote a note to the others

_Look, Louisa, I could care less that you hate me for a reason that is currently beyond my control. I learned a long time ago the hard way that if you love something, you let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was yours. I'll come back when I learn to get the power under control, or if you need me, which ever comes first._

_I'm letting you go, Louisa, Kirsten, Piper, everyone here. Don't screw it up. And even if you do, it seems to work out one way or another. __Trust me Kirsten, it wasn't easy, doing this again, but at least I know you're safer with them than you are with me. If you come looking for me and I get word of it, I will kick you into Tartarus, got it?_

_I love you._

_Alexis Shantel_

I lit a candle and set it on top of the note, so whoever gets up first will definitely see it.

I stopped by my twin's bed one last time. I shouldn't have, it only made leaving again that much harder.

The words I wrote on the note echoed in my head.

_I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you..._

Goodbye for a second time, my twin.

I glanced at Louisa, who looked truly Roman while she slept, and clenched my teeth.

I ran out of the dorm, resisting the urge to slam the door behind me. Then I realized that would be a good idea: a few minutes of confusion, settling down, finding the note, then debating on whether or not to come after me, all of that would take a good four hours. By that time, I'd be long gone.

I backed up, opened the door quietly, and ran out of the dorm again, letting all my anger and frustration and confusion course through my arm as I slammed the door with a satisfying _BANG!_

I sprinted out of the school, fighting back my tears. Then I realized that no one was around to see them, so I let them flow, feeling like my tears were glaciers as I tore through the freezing silence.

**Ugh, why are all my chapters so _short_ but so _needed_?! Some of my long ones I could go and dump and no one would know the difference, but when I comes to plot-changing chapters, it's just so _short!_ It's driving me _NUTS!_**

**Ok, sorry about that little disertation on how my chapters are driving me up the wall. On a positive side, it's Friday, and that means that it's the weekend! Yay! On another positive side, my Spanish grade is going up! I got one hundred on a homework assignment, and I aced the vocab test today! Whoop! ..._..._ (if you don't know what that is, that's Morse Code for 'V' which stands for 'Victory!' [Random little insight here: Beethoven used that in his dun dun dun duhhhh symphony. I don't know which one])**

**By the way, on another ADHD tangent, you guys will be learning a lot of Morse Code since I'm really interested in the language.**

**Did you like the chapter?**

**QotC: What does _braccas meas vesmini_ mean, and in what language? Hint: I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus.**

**~Lou**


	20. Bang, She's Gone

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XX

Jace

Bang, She's Gone

_BANG!_

The sound jolted me out of a sound sleep and I had an arrow strung in my bow and on my feet before I even blinked the sleep out of my eyes. _Thump_. I looked over to my side. Frank had fallen out of bed, startled by the loud noise. He sat up quickly, and got to his feet. I was tempted to laugh at the fact that he fell out of his bed, but I thought that he wouldn't appreciate that.

I ventured into the living area/kitchen/meeting place/everything else, bow drawn tight and my fingers loose on the arrow. Whatever moved was going to get shot.

The kitchen was strangely alight, and I kept my bow ready. The candle that lit the kitchen wavered, making the shadows on the walls and floor move so I was tempted to let my arrow loose. I didn't.

I neared the candle. Who forgot to blow out a candle? Who could forget to blow out a candle that was in the middle of the counter and couldn't possibly be missed?

Then I saw the note under the candle that was definitely in Alexis's scrawl: half-print, half-cursive, and nearly impossible to read to anyone who doesn't know her handwriting.

_Look, Louisa, I could care less that you hate me..._

I kept the note in my hand, and went and got the girls, who were still in confusion. Anarchy reigned in the small room.

I could just hear small snippets of their various arguments/conversations:

"Get your foot out of my ear, Kirsten!"

"Louisa, the bang was the door slamming..."

"Where's Alexis?"

"What on earth just happened?"

"Did something explode?"

I tried to have myself heard over the general chaos. "Hello!"

No luck. Then I tried a whistle that blasted my own eardrums. One word: Ow.

Everyone was startled into silence.

"Look," I said waving the note in the air. "I think it's meant for everbody, but it's targeting you mostly, Louisa."

"Read it," Irene said. Frank walked in from the other room, his straight hair sticking up in some places.

I looked at Louisa for a bit. "Out loud?"

I could see Louisa's jaw clench a bit, but she nodded briskly.

"It says, 'Look, Louisa, I could care less that you hate me for a reason that is currently beyond my control.'

Piper looked at Kirsten, sensing the ever-rising tension in the room.

" ' I learned a long time ago the hard way that if you love something, you let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was yours. I'll come back when I learn to get the power under control, or if you need me, which ever comes first.' "

"What if one of us needs you but Louisa doesn't?" Kirsten asked softly. She had silent tears running down her face.

I continued: " 'I'm letting you go, Louisa, Kirsten, Piper, everyone here. Don't screw it up. And even if you do, it seems to work out one way or another.' "

"It couldn't have been that easy," Kirsten said.

I continued with a bit of amusement in my voice: "Trust me Kirsten, it wasn't easy, doing this again, but at least I know you're safer with them than you are with me. If you come looking for me and I get word of it, I will kick you into Tartarus, got it?' "

"Always acting as a big sister to me," Kirsten said to herself, but I was near enough to hear it.

" 'I love you.' Then it she signs her name, which of course is illegible as usual," I remarked.

There was a long silence. "She can't be serious, can she? Alexis wouldn't just run out because of a little fight between her and Louisa?" Irene said incredulously.

"You don't know Alexis or Louisa very well, Irene," I said before Louisa opened her mouth. "I have to admit, from a bystander's point of view, it looked like nothing, some bickering, but nothing much. But you have to know the person before you go saying stuff, Irene. Tensions are high on a good day, what with the impending war and a prophecy that's all gloom and doom riding on our shoulders. Consider this as a friendly warning to watch what you say."

Piper exhaled, looking more exhausted than she had when she went to bed. "So we've got three newbies in here, a powerful demigod who's mad, a runaway demigod because of said mad demigod, one newbie is the long-lost twin of runaway demigod, two male demigods, one of whom is a newbie, and the other is the boyfriend of the mad demigod. Then we've got Tesla, blind, and me, who is one of the Seven and could tell you all to sit down and shut up and you all would do it. Am I missing anybody?

"Um, no, I don't think so," I said uncertainly.

"Great! So all of you need to sit down and shut up or work this out without making each other mad!" Piper said loudly. I resisted against her charmspeak, but Louisa flopped down onto her bed like she'd been waiting for that order. Who knows, maybe she had.

Most of the others sat down obediently. Irene resisted for a bit before sighing and sat down as well. I leaned against the wall and got myself comfortable.

"Well this is fun, Piper, it's actually quiet for once. Could we do it again sometime?" I said sarcastically.

Piper snickered while Louisa smacked my shin and said, "Shut up."

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just over here, wondering why Alexis would slam the door when she snuck out," Irene said.

The reason reached up and smacked me in the face, and I could tell Kirsten figured it out as well. "She wanted to cause confusion, and I bet she was betting on the chaos lasting for quite a bit longer, but forgot about Piper not being afraid to use her charmspeak," I rattled off the reason as I searched for my knapsack.

"Jace, stop. She ordered us not to go after her," Piper said. I didn't feel any charmspeak.

"No, she didn't. She ordered _Kirsten_ not to come after her. And the longer we stay here, discussing this, the farther away she gets," I pointed out.

"Jace, _stop_." Piper said forcefully, following me into the boys' section. The only problem with Piper's power, is that if you tune her out, you can't hear her, so the charmspeak doesn't work very well.

I wanted to stop, but I pushed past the urge. I saw the mangled knapsack. I grabbed my snow goggles, and pulled on my snowsuit over my everyday clothes. I threw the knapsack over my shoulder, and grabbed my skis and ski poles.

"Jace," Piper said, but I tuned her out.

"Piper, I can intercept her at the town. She'll go there, because we think that she'll stay in the woods and undercover. She'll help out the locals a bit, and then disappear. If I can get there before she disappears, I can drag her back."

"But Jace, she wouldn't have left if she wanted to stay. How are you going to make her stay?" Irene asked.

"I've got to try. I'll beat myself up if I don't, and I really don't enjoy doing that."

"You'll beat yourself up even if you do try and she doesn't come back, Jace," Kirsten pointed out, her eyes red.

"True," I agreed. "But I've still got to try."

Piper said something. "Piper, the downside to your power is that someone can ignore it,"

Silence settled among the others as I barged my way through the crowded dorm. "I'll be back. I can garuntee that." I tapped my quiver and bow, both of which were on my back.

* * *

Racing down the mountain at what felt like the speed of sound was completely and utterly awesome. The tiny town which had one main street and many side alleys I almost missed, but I managed to stop before I plowed all the way down the mountain.

I spent the afternoon asking people if they saw a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl wandering amongst them. I had no luck until a kindly old woman said yes, yes, a new girl was fixing up her home a bit.

"Could I see her?" I asked the old woman politely.

"A lover of yours, eh, Johnny?"

I had a feeling my face could beat a tomato in a 'which is redder' contest. "No ma'am," I said as politely as I could without sounding like a strangled cat. I didn't correct her on my name.

"I'll take you," she decided.

* * *

The distinct sound of a hammer hitting nail reached me before the old woman and I reached the porch of her home, which, I must admit, was in pretty good shape considering the whopper of a hurricane that just passed over us.

"Kira's fixing up my house, you know. Wonderful girl, but strange blue eyes. Almost seem haunted. But that can't be, she's hardly twelve, it looks like," the woman rambled on. I could see what Alexis meant by having her age guessed wrongly very often. In Colorado, they thought she was over twenty, now this woman is thinking she's twelve when Alexis is fourteen.

"Kira! I brought a friend of yours!" she called. "The power came back on in the grocery store, and I was able to get some meat and flour and more water!"

"Who is it?" a very familiar voice said warily from above me.

Walking into the old woman's home, I had to gawk. The high ceilings made me think of Louisa and Jason and their flying abilities. I could see them having a ball in here. There was a loft above me, probably for a secondary living room or something. There was an area sectioned off below the balcony, probably a bedroom or two and a bathroom. The kitchen was plain in sight: an island, a peninsula, some other counter space between a wood-burning stove that was burning merrily, a sink, and a refrigerator that probably wouldn't be working right now.

Alexis was sitting on top of a metal ladder that was three times as tall as me, a hammer in one hand and the other supporting a board. If she hadn't done much dangerous things before, I would've gasped and told her to get off the ladder this instant.

Even from this distance, I saw her eyes go wide in fright and surprise, and then her jaw clenched, and her face was clear of emotion. She was in a dark blue sweater that quite obviously wasn't hers, jeans, and some tennis shoes. Her ratty hair was still ratty, but somewhat brushed and pulled back into a ponytail, and a baseball cap on backwards. She had done a pretty good job blending in with the rest of the town. She looked like a mortal girl who's a bit tomboy-ish.

"Jace, you shouldn't have come," Alexis said sadly.

**This chapter should make up for the last three or four chapters, because it is 1,846 words! Whoop!**

**QotC (not Percy Jackson related): If you had to guess, what day of the year would be my birthday? Hint: exactly a month from now!**


	21. How to Vanish Into Thin Air

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XXI

Jace

How to Vanish into Thin Air

I watched as Alexis set the nail and board down on one side of the ladder. She didn't make a move to come down.

"C'mon, Al- Kira," I amended hastily for the sake of the old woman. "Please."

Alexis shook her head slowly like I was retarded. "No, Jace. I can't."

There was a long silence. "Why?"

"I need to protect my twin. If Louisa had wanted to, she could've stopped me from going. But she didn't, and that makes Kirsten all the more susceptible to Louisa's rage. It's better that I'm not there."

I stepped towards the ladder, and Alexis abruptly got up, balancing on the shaky ladder. I stopped instantly. "Kira, your twin _needs_ you," I said, pleading with her.

"Then take it up with Louisa, not me. My only saving grace is that Kirsten doesn't have any huge powers of Apollo like I do."

"That's where you'd be wrong. If anything, she has a _bigger_ power than you do, Alexis," I said sharply.

Alexis's jaw clenched. I stepped towards the ladder, intending to climb up, but Alexis suddenly had two hunting knives in either hand. I blinked and stopped again, one foot on the first step of the ladder. "Alexis, _please_," I pleaded.

"No. I will not go back and put my sister in more danger than she already is. Louisa obviously doesn't need or want me around, and frankly, I'd rather not be around if she's going to be like that."

"You sound about three years old, you know that?" I said.

"No, Jonathan," I sucked in a breath, I hadn't known she knew my real name, "I don't. I was happy when I was three, living in France with my mother and my grandmother and my twin without a care in the world. I wasn't sucked up into this insane world of demigods and monsters, I wasn't struggling with my family to make ends meet, and my twin hadn't died. I was living happily, without a care for the USA. I wasn't burdened by the troubles of the people around me. I wasn't burdened by the pasts of the people around me. I was _happy_, and I was only truly _happy_ before I was _six_. How would _you_ like that, _Jonathan_? You still have a loving mother. You still have your best friend. You aren't tainted as much as others by the world and reality around you. If anyone needs a wake-up call, it's you. I did it for my sister, and it was hard enough without someone coming after me. So _will you leave me ALONE?!_"

I clenched my teeth. "No, I won't, and your twin is why I'm here. I see your reasoning, and I also won't have Kirsten heartbroken. I won't have it, Alexis. I've seen enough sadness to know what needs to be done."

"I refuse to be heartbroken because I made Louisa mad and Kirsten tried to protect me and got killed because of it. I was heartbroken when I thought she died. I was heartbroken again when Mom and Grandma died. Now Kirsten's back, and the best Christmas present I could possibly ask for, but I have to leave."

"_Please!_" I yelled at her, frustrated.

"NO!" she yelled back at me. "No, I won't go back to that school! No, I won't go back to Louisa! No, I _will NOT _go back to Kirsten! No, I _won't follow you!_"

"And you just used a bunch of double negatives, so _yes_, you _will_ come back with me to at least give your sister a proper goodbye!" I yelled at her.

"And if I went back I can't leave her again!" she practically screamed at me. "GET _OUT!_"

I lunged up the ladder, but in one swift movement she thrust her knives in mid-air, where they disappeared, and lauched herself at the rafters, grabbed one with her hands, swung herself up, ran lightly along it, and opened a small window, and hurled herself through it.

I scrambled down the ladder and threw open the door, certain that Alexis would've just plunged downwards and had either been killed or broken something, but nothing was there. No _one_ was there.

It was like Alexis had vanished into thin air.

* * *

I made it back to the school long after sundown. I was greeted by a bunch of hopeful faces, but all of them fell as soon as they saw my face.

We sat down around the meeting table as I told them about the horrible encounter with Alexis. Kirsten and Piper hugged me as my face hit the table in dispair.

"Hey, you tried your hardest," Piper said comfortingly.

"And it wasn't enough," I groaned. "The three-year-old comment probably didn't help either."

"No, that wasn't all that smart, but she'll come back eventually," Kirsten agreed. I was more reassured by her than I was Piper, because a) Kirsten wasn't mad at me for letting Alexis escape, and b) she was the one who could see the future, more or less. By now, I was hoping it was more.

"But some of the things she said were quite obviously put out into the open to rattle me. Why would she do that?" I groaned.

Irene shook her head. "Jace," that name made me relax infinitely more, the 'Jonathan' thing Alexis did was just plain creepy, "we don't know anymore than you do."

I banged my head against the table. Piper pulled me up. "Hey, stop. You're going to get a headache doing that."

"I'd rather get a migrane than think about Alexis right now," I said, then went back to thunking my head on the table. Unfortunatly, the train of thought stayed stubbornly in place. Someone thunked my head hard, and I yelled, "Ow!" I glared at Piper, who was covering her mouth to smother her laughter, holding her staff in one hand. "Seriously?!"

"Hey, it distracted you, didn't it?" Irene said in Piper's defense.

I turned my glare to Irene, and she shivered slightly. "Dang, for a son of an easy-going god you've got a pretty scary glare," she remarked.

I sighed and went back to banging my head against the table.

**Well...that last part was random. Sorry 'bout that. But the beginning part was important, obviously. I think you guys got that. Next chapter will be in Alexis' point of view!**

**QotC: What did Jason say before charging into battle against the Big F and Otis?**


	22. Tricks of the Trade

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XXII

Alexis

Tricks of the Trade

Cheers, Jace, for making me look like I had summoned a portal or somehow made myself fly or went invisible or aquired super-speed.

Well, to take a line from Sadie's book, the truth is a bit less dramatic.

I think I forgot to mention this in the last book, but I trained with the Hunters during those two months that Louisa was in a coma. I even considered joining them for awhile. But beyond that, I picked up some serious skills. Along with the opinion that Thalia was absolutely awesome, even when we made up the annoying habit of both of us calling each other 'Thals': Thalia because that was part of her name, and me after the dolphin incident (by the way, she is safe and sound in the Poseidon cabin. She can even go back to the ocean if she wishes, but she prefers the Poseidon cabin for some reason), and the baby dolphin calling me Thalassa, thus Thalia nicknaming me 'Thals', which confused the heck out of both of us when Annabeth or Percy called 'Hey, Thals!' because we'd both answer.

But beyond that. Jace definitely would've seen me if he'd looked up. Apparently he thought I'd jumped. Well, I had, but I'd jumped _up_, not _down_. There had been a lip over the window, and I had climbed onto that. Of course, getting down was extremely hard after I'd gone up there. I felt like a stupid cat who climbed a bit too high in a tree.

I don't want to go into details on how I got down, but I will tell you this: I now can't blame Joann for thinking I'm a contortionist. I had to move my body in ways I didn't know was possible until then.

So. Running away. _How was it?_ you may ask. Well, it sucked, to say the least. At the most, now I don't have to deal with trying to protect Kirsten who would probably try to protect me.

Speaking of Kirsten. My twin sister had the ability to see the future. Joy. Now I'm starting to regret running away.

Now that I think about it, it makes sense: twins of a descendent of Apollo. One who can see the past, the other, the future. A little bit like Janus, only without the combined body and seperate faces, the god of choices, doorways...paths.

I huffed as I ran. I looked back to see how far away from the village I was, and promptly smacked into a tree.

"Ow!" I yelled aloud. When I bounced off the tree, all I could think about was Annabeth's teaching me once: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." I staggered backward, trying to absorb the 'reaction', but it was no use: I fell backward and jarred my funny bone; why it's called a funny bone I haven't a clue: it hurt like absolute Hades.

I groaned, holding my elbow, and just let myself fall back into the snow. My matted, curly, blond hair splayed around me, and I irritably spat some out of my mouth. Stupid hair.

The throbbing in my elbow lessened, and I propped myself up. I glared half-heartedly at the tree that knocked me down, but really, I was noticing a slight change in myself. I was more carefree already, and I hadn't even been gone four hours. Wow, Louisa really did affect me, by a lot.

I flopped back into the snow again. It felt good, for some reason. Not being able to get wet unless I wanted to was probably part of it, but unless I already had hypothermia, the snow felt really good, like it was insulation, keeping my body heat in and warming me up. I sat up again, because I'd heard a stick creak. Probably nothing, but I couldn't be too careful. Then I heard a voice I hadn't heard in two months or so:

"Hey, Thals."

* * *

I was welcomed warmly into the Hunter's camp. It was really only Thalia that I was pretty close to, but I knew Phobe and some others as friends. The newer recruits (there were only two) didn't really know what to make of me, and steered clear. Lina walked up to me and clapped me on the back.

"Girl! You and I need to go at it again!" she said happily. Lina, Thalia, and I were the only ones who used both hunting knives at the same time, so we often trained together.

I grinned at her, feeling one side quirk up a little more than the other. Seems to be a bit of a trademark among Poseidon's children: lopsided grins. "Why not now?" I asked readily.

Her smile fell. "Lady Artemis sent word to us. In twenty-seven minutes, we move out, and we both know that it takes longer than twenty-seven minutes to spar with each other."

I had to smile at that. She and I could spar for hours, if we had the stamina. More often than not, I was dead tired, and could only last forty-five minutes.

Lina's slightly elfish ears pricked up ever so slightly. I looked to my left at the same time as Lina did, and Thalia walked up in all her Death-to-Barbie t-shirted glory. "Thals, you're summoned by Lady Artemis," she said.

I raised my eyebrows a bit. Not everyday do I see a god or goddess, but now I'm seeing two gods in as many days. "Now," Thalia added.

"Ok, ok, no need to get pushy," I joked.

Thalia growled playfully, but still sounding like one of her wolves and said, "I'll show you _pushy_," and promptly shoved me into a snow bank. I unburied myself, laughing, and then tackled Thalia.

"Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt, but Lady Artemis is waiting," Lina called. Thalia and I got off the ground and ran towards the camp.

I manuvered myself around the patrolling wolves, patting a couple on the head, ducked under a flying-too-low falcon, and made my way to the biggest tent. Not sure what to do when entering a tent with a goddess in it, I placed my hand on the fabric, and said, "Knock, knock?"

"Enter," a slightly stern, but welcoming at the same time, voice said. I unzipped the tent flap and slipped in, zipped it back up, and bowed slightly.

A girl of twelve or thirteen sat on a pillow with a beautiful wolf at her side. It looked like an Artic fox, but without the bushy tail and big ears. The girl had auburn hair and silvery eyes.

"I sense your impatience, Alexis," Artemis said finally.

"If you're going to try to recruit me to the Hunters, I say no," I blurted. I immediately clapped my hands over my mouth. "Sorry, that just slipped out," I mumbled.

Instead of looking like Artemis wanted to kill me, she merely looked amused. "Is there a reason?"

I slowly lowered my hands. "Well, the immortality is cool 'n' all, but I don't really want to fight and fight and fight. I'd rather fight, live, and die."

Artemis sat forward. "Death does not scare you."

A statement, not a question.

"No," I agreed. "But the process of dying does."

She sat back, regarding me, which I found a bit creepy, since she was staring at me with no emotion on her face. Suddenly she stirred and nodded to the tent flap. "You may stay with my Hunters, Alexis. They can defend themselves," she paused, as if she was afraid of freaking me out. Too late, she added the 'they can defend themselves' to her sentence, which either meant that she'd been in my mind or she had figured out vaguely why I was out here and not at the school. "You intrigue me, both as a female worthy of my Hunters, and a demigod who has a destiny not even close to being fulfilled. Go. We move out in ten minutes."

I'm pretty sure that Artemis looked up the word _vague_ in the dictionary, and that was what it told her to say. Ok, not really, but it felt that way. I got up and clambered awkwardly out of the tent.

Lina's glossy black hair popped up in front of me, about twenty feet away from the tent. "So, how was it?"

I glanced backwards towards Artemis's tent briefly. "It was...interesting."

**Ok! That done. 1,446 words, people! Whoop! Next chapter will also be in Alexis's point of view.**

**I'm actually kind of surprised that I managed to update this week: as of tomorrow, exams start. Yippee. (note the sarcasm)**

**QotC: Who was the Hunter who pegged Connor Stoll with two arrows sticking up like antenae (sp?)?**

**Also, a HUGE favor to ask of you guys: I need some Hunters! Could some of you submit some names, whether they are demigod, nymph, or mortal, and their weapon of choice (besides bow), and (optional) some looks (tall/short, dark hair/light hair, color of eyes)?**


	23. Again?

**I don't own PJO or KC. If I did, I'd be working on HoH, not this!**

XXIII

Alexis

Again

We set up camp after running for four hours through dense woodland. What you see in the movies, all those awesome moves people in the jungle use, are absolutely worthless if you aren't running away from anyone. Well, technically, I _was_ running away from someone, but not in the immediate vincity. Anyway. Those moves are worthless. For one, they take up a _lot_ of energy, and for two, they simply aren't practical in this case.

I just hate my life, or more specifically, my powers, these days. I seriously want to be a _normal_ person for once. I feel like banging my head against a wall, but since that won't help in the least...

So basically, I accidentally woke the camp with my shouting, so I had thirty pairs of concerned and one a mixture of concerned and wary eyes looking at me. The catch? It was Thalia whose memories I accidentally invaded this time. When she saw Annabeth and Percy for the first time after they returned from Tartarus. Her memory, now my own as well, seriously creeped me out: bleeding, battered, weak (but strong at the same time, if that makes any sense), jumpy, scared...fallen. A younger Percy and Annabeth than I know, leaning against each other in exhaustion, battered and bruised and mentally scarred. It sent shivers down my spine every time I thought about it.

So there we were, sitting around a barely-started fire, as I basically word vomited. I was comfortable, though creeped out, and I trusted the Hunters not to do anything too rash, such as, say, killing me. Little things like that. I was expecting yelling, getting kicked out into the snow, but the eerie silence that followed my word vomit (sorry for the mental image) was even more frightening than being yelled at.

"Oh, my gods." Three words shattered the silence. _Then_ the chaos started, everything from "Oh my gods I can't believe you've been holding that in for so long!" to "Why didn't you warn us about this?!"

Thalia stood up finally and yelled, "_Shut it!_"

Needless to say, everyone quieted down.

"So let me get this straight: You come here, looking for _a_ demigod. You find three, one of them your long-lost twin. You survive Sandy, only to run away because you don't want said twin, of whom, by the way, can see the future, to be hurt. The reason you ran away in the first place is because you did the same thing to Louisa that you just did to me. Correct?"

"In a rough nutshell, yes," I said quietly.

"And both times, your power picked out the worst memories that we've had."

"Uh-huh."

"And you're trying and failing miserably so far in getting it under control."

"Pretty much."

Thalia whistled. "Boy, I don't envy you. I've got some pretty bad memories."

I sighed in relief that she wasn't going to electrocute or slice and dice me. Thalia's acceptance set off a new round of shouting and arguing.

One of the newbies, her name is Cherry, I think, was in a heated argument with a daughter of Ares, Nayana. I was pretty sure that Cherry was about ready to trade her marshmallow stick for her whip or bow, even though she's definitely the nicest of the Hunters so far.

Thalia whistled again, but this time it was ear-splitting and sharp. Quiet reigned almost instantly.

"Ok, look," Thalia said angrily, sparks flying off her finger tips sporadically. "I get that you all are feeling betrayed that she didn't tell you from the start. But think about it! What was she going to say? 'Hey guys, thought you might want to know that I can read all your pasts, and oh! almost forgot, I wouldn't be out here in the middle of nowhere if it wasn't for that power that, sorry, I have no idea how to control! How's your day goin'?'" Thalia said sarcastically. "You _really_ think that she could tell you all that without sounding like a complete loon?! Huh?! Tell me if you have another suggestion!" she demanded.

"Not telling us at all," Phobe muttered. "At least, not until another episode happened."

"Thank you, Phobe! So, if we don't want another episode to happen, we help her get that power under control!" Thalia said, exasperated.

"How? Have her invade our memories in our sleep?" Nayana demanded. "Uh, no, thank you very much!"

"No," Thalia said slowly. "If she can control her power tightly enough to just pick up one memory that one of us offers, that means that she can keep it from happening again in her sleep."

"Her subconscious already knows how to manipulate the power, now we just need to bring it to the forefront of her conscious," Quinn, a daughter of Athena, said.

Thalia paused. "Didn't get most of that, but ok. Anyone here with a not-too-scary past?"

Cherry raised her hand. "I'm a relatively young nymph, so I didn't fight in either war."

Thalia frowned. "How old are you?"

Cherry turned as red as her hair. "Four." Everyone looked at Cherry in astonishment. "Hey, looks can be decieving! Nayana is like 70 something, and she looks twelve! You're 24 and look fifteen! Phobe's from the _original_ Rome, and she looks no older than thirteen! So why can't I be four and look ten?!"

Laughter echoed around the circle of thirty Hunters, Artemis, and me.

"Alright, I conceed," Thalia said, laughing a little.

* * *

My 'training' started in the morning, after we had gotten a good night's sleep and Cherry got over her embarassment, and I recovered from telling thirty people, some of which I didn't know all that well, my not-so-secret secret.

"Give it a shot now," Cherry said suddenly in the morning. I guess the look on my face was priceless, because she began laughing. "I thought about it last night, and I've got the memory in the forefront of my mind right now."

I hestitated. "Are you sure?"

She nodded confidentally. "It's not like I have any secrets. And it's not like my memories are creepy."

"No, it's just forcefully, consciously, invading someone's mind is creepy," I said dryly.

Cherry shrugged. "It'd be fun to creep out the bad guy on a battlefield, though. C'mon, Alexis. If you really don't want to do it, that's fine, but the sooner you get that under control, the sooner you can go back to your twin."

I had to smile wryly. "You really know how to twist my arm, don't you?"

Cherry shrugged, but she had a small smile on her face. The look on her face was definitely something to the effect of, _C'mon, I dare you to_.

I sighed. "One last time, are you-"

"Yes, I'm sure! Jeez, get on with it already!" Cherry exclaimed. "I wouldn't have brought it up if I wasn't sure!"

I concentrated as the sun came up. I could feel the sunlight hit my hair, which was dirty and matted and stringy and overall plain disgusting. I could see Cherry smile warmly, encouraging me. Then I was suddenly thrown from the forest into somewhere I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be.

**Ooo, slight cliffy. Unfortunately for you guys, you'll have to wait until Alexis's POV again, since next chapter will be in Jace's POV.**

**Anyway, I did good on my exams, and I'll see you guys next chapter! Also, as a personal favor to me, could you pray for my Grandma's friend? Her husband just died last night. :'(**

**I shall see you people later!**

**~Lou**


	24. How to Talk

**I don't own PJO or KC or Mariam-Webster Dictionary! :) Didn't that coming, didya?**

XXIV

Jace

How to Talk

Thanks, Alexis for leaving off on a cliffhanger. We so love you right now.

So while Alexis was enjoying herself with the Hunters, I was busy being sleepless. Yes, yes, I got that it wasn't my fault, yada yada yada, but guess what? Percy was really rubbing off on me.

I rolled out of bed quietly as possible and walked into the kitchen, lighting a candle on the way so I could see better.

"I'd go."

I was turned around with my bow in hand with an arrow notched faster than I could think about it, pointed towards the intruder's head. Then I realized it was Frank.

"Sorry. Felt you get up," he said sheepishly, not at all looking scared at the fact that he had a arrow pointed at his head.

I lowered my bow slowly.

"I'd go after her," he repeated.

"If you hadn't noticed," I said dryly, "I already did. And look where it got me. If she won't respond to family, I seriously doubt she'll listen to anyone else."

"Maybe it'll be _because_ I'm not family," Frank said evenly. "I find it's easier to trust strangers than people you know."

"No offence, dude, but this is the most I've heard you talk," I said, snorting.

He gave a sad smile. "I find it's easier to trust strangers than people you know."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Cryptic much?"

He actually did roll his eyes. "Paranoid, much?" Frank said, nodding to the still-strung arrow.

"You learn to live like this. You'll see, Frank. Eventually," I all but yelled in frustration.

I could almost see Frank grinding his teeth. "The problem with strangers, is that they don't know you either."

Then he turned around and walked out. No provisions, no supplies, no weapons to guard himself, nothing but the clothes on his back.

* * *

"That was an interesting conversation," Louisa said sarcastically from the doorway.

I jumped. She had just _appeared_ there. "Gods, don't _do_ that! It scares me to death every time!"

"Then you should be dead by now."

I resisted the urge to bang my head against a brick wall as hard as I could. "What is this? Let's-gang-up-on-Jace-and-push-him-to-his-limits Day?!"

Louisa ignored me and shut the door. Then she started building a fire in the small oven.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. As much as I wanted to smack Louisa, I both couldn't and wouldn't, and she knew it.

"Look, Lou, I'm busy being completely stressed out because the disappearance of Alexis has sent everybody off-" My voice steadily rose.

"The deep end. I know." Louisa struck a match and lit the kindling that was situated under three small logs. She stood up and looked me in the eye: a five foot four demigod filled to the brim with determination that could quite possibly take me down in under thirty seconds. "I know. Things around here are crazy since summer, I know. We're all stressed out like an over-used rubber band, I know. Some of us cope with craziness in different ways, I know. I've experienced that firsthand. We're all forgetting about the big picture, though: Let's face it, the world's gonna end in under six months."

"Which is why we need Alexis to get back here and repair the damage as best we can!" I said, fighting to keep my voice down.

"She needs to learn her limits. As of right now, she's as lost as I am," she said. Louisa's eyes were guarded. "She's confused as heck. Irene was right, it wasn't all that big of a deal. Alexis deals with her problems by backing away and seeing how to repair it first, but that shattered vase was in a vast room full of shattered vases, and the pieces are all scrambled up, so it's easier to get out of the room. Alexis has been bottling feelings up for years. She can accomplish a lot with this small detour, both learning her limits and repairing the vases."

I groaned and leaned my head back. "Then why are you not stopping the people that are going after her?"

She turned to stare at the fire, not answering me. The fire itself was burning merrily. I wished I felt the way the fire looked.

"'Nother storm's comin'," Louisa muttered, her ever-so-slight Southern accent kicking in. "Batter down the hatches. We'll be losing power again in this one."

But I got the feeling that the storm, however true it may or may not be, was just an excuse to avoid my question.

Just before she went to go wake the others, she said to me a single word: "Regression."

* * *

I looked 'regression' up on Kirsten's laptop when Louisa disappeared for a bit.

Mariam-Webster's Dictionary said:

_**1**: The act or instance of regressing_ (real helpful)  
_**2**: A trend or shift to a lower or less perfect state_ (what?)  
_a: progressive decline of a manifestation of disease_ (Great! However, I'm pretty sure that Louisa doesn't have a disease.)  
_b (1) **:** gradual loss of differentiation and function by a body part especially as a physiological change accompanying aging_ (I didn't get any of that)  
_(2) **:** gradual loss of memories and acquired skills_ (I sure hope this isn't what is going on, she just got her memories _back_!)  
_c : reversion to an earlier mental or behavioral level or to an earlier stage of psychosexual development in response to organismic stress or to suggestion _

I stopped reading at the last one. I didn't understand all of it, but I got enough: Louisa was so stressed that she retreated into a younger form of herself, which really doesn't help all that much, since her childhood was just as messed up as her life is now. However, it was a major difference: younger-Louisa was Roman, a trained soldier that was taught to not show emotion or anything else that could be used as a weakness.

So, wrapped up in a nutshell, Louisa was turning back the clock (figuretively), and being a Roman because she was-no, _is_-stressed.

_Joy_.

**Oh my gods, I am SO sorry for disappearing for two weeks. I _did not_ mean to do that. Then I realized today, the day of my birthday, my sleepover, the end to a hectic and stressful week, that I hadn't updated in two whole weeks! I'm so, _so_ sorry!**

**I have a book recomendation for you guys: Struck, by Jennifer Bosworth! It's practically the best book I've read since I found the Percy Jackson books!**

**This chapter is my birthday present to you guys. I was originally going to put this later, so you'd have to suffocate in questions, but I did it now!**

**I'll do my best not to leave you guys in the dark like that again. I'll probably do Louisa next chapter. Boy, haven't done her in awhile! Does this satisfy your questions on how, who, where, or why Louisa's so distant and quite possibly mean?**

**QotC (Kane Chronicals related): In the Red Pyramid, who did Sadie focus on to get out of bird form?**

**See ya!**

**~Lou (imagine a little party hat tilted on the 'L' for me, would ya?)**


	25. A Lot Happens When People Disappear

XXV

Louisa

A Lot Happens When People Disappear

As Jace so crudely put it when he looked up 'regression', yes, I did 'disappear for a bit'.

After eavesdropping on the conversation between the two half-brothers (Frank [not the Seven Frank] as a half-brother to Jace...slightly scary thought), and having a conversation with Jace himself, I was very stuck between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. I could leave, and go after Frank, which would be faster. Or I could attempt to round up everyone else and go after Frank. Key word: _attempt._

They had full rights to hate me. I'd actually be surprised if they didn't hate me. But if I talked to Frank, maybe I could deter him, and get everyone to camp and have them train. Kirsten, for one, would probably resist every step of the way.

I sat, cross-legged, on the roof, debating over whether to go after Frank and get them to camp, or round them all up and grab Frank, and _then_ get to camp. I might also mention I was sitting in rain.

"I talked to the camp," Piper said behind me. "Joann has disappeared from Camp."

I sighed in relief. If anyone could find Alexis, it would be Joann, and she wouldn't get killed for it. I paused for a moment. "How did you get up here?"

Personally, I had kind of flown up.

"I climbed."

"There's an inside way to get up here?"

"How else do you think the bird poop would get scrubbed off?" Piper said jokingly. Then she turned serious, and said something that surprised me. "We don't hate you, Lou."

I think a feather could've knocked me off the roof. "Wha- Why?"

Her eyes changed to a light-hearted sky blue. "If only you could see your face... No, Louisa, we don't hate you. Kirsten doesn't hate you. Irene's slightly confused, but she doesn't hate you. Jace is concerned for you, but is afraid you'd bite his head off."

I snorted at that. She laughed a little as well.

"But no, Lou. If anything, it would be concern that overrides other emotions towards you."

I knit my eyebrows. Honestly, she lost me somewhere back towards 'bite his head off'. "Why would you guys be concerned?"

She stared at me incredulously, Piper's eyes turning almost the same color as Nico's. "You're kidding, right? In the three years I've known you, the first meeting albeit a bit terrifying, I have never seen you so..._reserved._"

My head pounded with the oncoming migrane. I put my head in my hands. I saw Piper scoot towards me, but then skittered away. I looked up at her, confused. Then I caught a glimpse of my arm, which had faint crackles of electricity running up and down it. I shut it off with a little bit of difficulty. "Sorry, it's safe now," I muttered to Piper.

"Then explain why the only reason I'm still alive is the rubber soles of my shoes?" Piper said calmly.

Horror dawned. "Get away from me!" I yelled at her, and I ran to edge of the roof, as far from her as I could manage.

Piper looked confused, and then thunder boomed, deafening me. "Child of Jupiter!" I screamed as loud as I could.

She lunged for the hatch that led back into the school just as the lightning struck.

I'd been a fool. I knew about the incoming storm, an electrical storm, at that, and I still went out there, exposed to the elements, and put everyone in danger. I swore as electricity sang through my veins, no doubt adding to the scars that I already have.

Just for you folks out there that don't have Jupiter blood: try your best not to be on a roof of a two-story building during an electrical storm. You'd be more toasted than a flaming marshmellow. I mean, seriously, it's bad enough that I'm not a direct son/daughter of Jupiter, but in the couple times that I've had my clothes blasted off of my person? Um...awkward...

I managed to see past the blinding blue-white light that Piper had made it into the school safely, without anything shocking her.

I relaxed. Now I could be more in control without the risk of harming someone.

In the three-millisecond flash of light, I absorbed the lightning like a sponge, and now I released it, throwing it back into the heavens.

My moment of adrenaline/energy/glory/something-like-that gone, I staggered away from the edge, completely exhausted.

Then I collapsed on the roof, in the pouring rain, and the welcome darkness overtook me.

* * *

"...awake?" someone asked.

"I don't know. Zeus knows that was a Hades of a lot of energy that went through her," someone else responded. I think it was Piper. "Louisa, I don't think Hades wants you wreaking havoc on his kingdom quite yet. Hang on for a little while longer, okay?"

I groaned, turned over, and promptly threw up.

"Sorry," I grunted between heaves. "Lightning never likes food."

"I don't think lightning likes much of anything, including you," Piper wryly replied. "That was some show. Do you do that often?"

"Oh, Hades, no." I groaned at the very thought. "I'm gonna black out again in about two minutes, and whatever happens, don't let me stand up. I repeat, _do not let me stand up_."

The other person, whom I now figured out was Irene, looked shocked. "What? Why?"

I dry heaved once, and then continued. "I'll be amnesiac for about an hour, but only of the past day, so I won't remember Frank's gone, or that Joann's going after Alexis, so I'll either be like I am now, absolutely miserable, or perfectly fine until I stand up. Either way, I'll have no idea I've just gone through the lightning thing, but tell me _brisingr_, and I'll know." I dry heaved again, and choked. "Try not to let me fall off the mattress, please."

Then I blacked out again.

* * *

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up, and bonked heads with someone else. No, scratch that, _two_ someone elses. "Is there a _reason_ two people are standing over my bed like a couple of mother hens?"

"Wow, she was thorough. You really don't remember anything?" Irene sounded faintly impressed. I gave her a confused look and made to stand up, but Piper practically shrieked and pushed me back down.

"No! Louisa, I didn't get all of it, but you said to tell you something like briss-ing-gur," Piper sounded the word out carefully, "even though I haven't an idea what in Hades that means."

I felt faint. I grabbed Piper's hands that were still on my shoulders. "Who was there? Did I hurt anyone? Where was I? Did anyone see?" I bombarded her with questions, but didn't make the attempt to stand up again. My legs wouldn't work for the better part of the next half hour.

"Lou, calm down," Piper said gently. "That show would be impossible for anyone _not_ to see. You were on the roof of the school. You didn't hurt anyone, and I was the only one to witness it."

My panicked breathing slowed, and then altogether stopped as I saw the tell-tale red mark on Piper's skin. "No..." I whispered. "No, no, no, no, no..." I grabbed Piper's arm and yanked her sleeve up, revealing a red pattern tracing her veins that looked very much like lightning. I yanked up my own sleeve, and my own painful souvenier blazed against my skin. Hers was much smaller than mine, just under an inch, whereas mine was a good four inches plus.

Irene choked. "Holy-"

I swore in every language I knew, which was now bordering four languages I was reasonably fluent in, and about a dozen I wasn't so fluent in. "I'm so sorry, Piper. I never meant for that to happen," I said to her, still half in shock.

"What's all the ruckus-" Kirsten stopped dead as she saw the red lines. "What on earth and Hades happened?!"

**Never fear, I'm still here! Wow, you can tell I've been reading way too much Struck by Jennifer Bosworth and the Inheritance Cycle... _brisingr_ is from the Inheritance Cycle. Since _brisingr_ means _fire_, and lightning has often been described as 'living fire', I thought the _brisingr_ thing was appropriate.**

**I don't own PJO, KC, Struck, or IC. Wow, I've combined a lot of series together.**

**QotC: Since I don't know but kind of need to, what's plural for _series_? BTW, the only person who got the last question right was trustingHim17. Her mother! *round of applause* Here is your prize: two cookies! (::) (::)**


	26. More Surprises Than We Need

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XXVI

Alexis

More Surprises Than We Need

Uncontrolled images flashed through my head. I fought to slow them down, to no avail. I could feel someone touching me, but I couldn't see who it was, nor could I hear them. For all I knew I could be being kidnapped.

A dryad's face peered up at me. "C'mon, Cherry! Do you wanna catch 'em or not?!" The dryad raced off. A giggle came from me-Cherry-and she ran after the dryad.

Then the image was gone.

Cherry huffed as she ran, laughing under her breath, and melted into a tree. A _thump_ resounded throughout the trunk. I guessed she had had a satyr after her.

The scene changed. It was now night.

Cherry ventured into the arena curiously. Instinctively, she didn't like the blades, but picked one up anyway.

"You're holding it wrong," someone said behind me. Cherry whipped around.

"You're young, aren't you? I know dryads generally don't like blades. Normally they don't even like to fight," my brother mused. His sea-green eyes were eerie in the moonlight. "But you seem a bit different."

Percy chuckled a bit. "You won't get very far in battle if you hold it like that. What's your name?"

"Cherry," Cherry whimpered.

"Cherry," Percy repeated. "Like your hair. I'm Percy."

"I know."

Percy laughed outright. "Wow, I've never had anyone so direct about it. Don't worry, that's a good thing. Here, instead of holding it like you're going to stab it into the floor, hold it like this."

He moved around to Cherry, lifted the sword so he could see it better. "Um, never mind. You need to choose something more your style. I don't think broadswords, which are extremely hard to master, is your style."

"Broadswords?" Cherry sounded out the word carefully.

He took the blade from Cherry's hands and snapped it into two blades, each with half a handle. "These are broadswords. I think you'd be more suited to a short sword. No, probably not. More like a long knife." Percy strode to the weapons board in two long steps, and selected something from the wide variety of choices. "Here, try this out."

Cherry almost dropped it, the knife was too heavy. "Maybe not," Percy decided.

After searching around for a while, he found another knife. This one, clearly very old and hadn't been used in who-knows-how-long. Percy threw it at the solid stone floor, where it embedded itself into the concrete. "Good, it won't shatter. How's this one?"

He gave it to her, hilt first. Gingerly, she took it. "It suits you," Percy remarked.

"Why is it so old?" Cherry questioned curiously.

"Cherry, this is the demigods' heritage. Piper has Helen of Troy's knife. I have Hercules's sword. This was the first Lieutenant of Artemis's hunting knife. No one wanted to claim it," Percy paused. "Until now."

I took a closer look at the hunting knife. _How did the Camp get it?_ I wondered.

Percy wasn't done talking. "I'll get the Hephaestus cabin to clean and sharpen it. Actually, I'll teach you how to do it now, so you know what to do."

"Okay," Cherry agreed.

I only knew the scene had changed because Cherry looked a little older and the hunting knife looked a lot less worn.

Celestial bronze rang against Celestial bronze, and Percy and Cherry went at it ferociously. Back and forth they went, ducking, slicing, dodging, slashing, twirling, twisting.

"You'd give Thalia a run for her money," Percy panted to Cherry.

"I don't know who that is, but thanks?" Cherry huffed.

"She's a daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant to Artemis," Percy explained.

"Why does it always relate back to Artemis?" Cherry groaned.

"I think you'd fit right in with them," Percy said. He looked like he was doing the Limbo when Cherry swiped at him.

"Were you being sarcastic?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to tell you that pointless opinion. Yes, I meant it!" Percy said exaperatedly.

"Only an idiot couldn't see the sarcasm dripping from that statement," Cherry laughed, jumping up as Percy slashed at her legs.

"You're statement proves my point that my first stepfather was a complete moron, then," Percy laughed with her.

At the same time, they tried doing the disarming maneuver, effectively locking each other's weapons. Cherry laughed, panting. "Well this is a definite standstill."

"No kidding," someone said from the shadows. "It's about time you trained someone, Percy, you being the best swordsman alive."

"That's debatable," Percy countered.

"Really? Who's the better swordsman?" A girl with black clothes and spikey hair stepped into the moonlight.

"Chiron. My father," Percy suggested.

"There is a reason why I said swords_man_, not swords_horse_ or swords_god_," the girl snorted.

"You and I both know that I'm not human," Percy bantered, a small smile playing around his lips.

"Not fully, no. Oh, _shut up_, Kelp Head."

"Nice to see you too, Pinecone Face," Percy said wryly.

* * *

I gasped as I yanked out of the visions. I found myself lying down in the snow, my legs kinked at an awkward angle. Thalia leaned over me worriedly. "She's awake!" she yelled, seemingly to no one.

I cringed. The massive headache that I had wasn't being helped by so-called 'Pinecone Face'.

Sitting up with Thalia trying to push you back down is no easy feat. The first person I saw besides Thalia was Cherry. "My brother trained you," I rasped.

"What the-" Thalia stuttered.

"Percy really is an idiot, if all he can come up with is Pinecone Face," I said to Thalia.

"What on-"

"Do you still have the knife?" I asked Cherry.

"How did you-"

"Thalia, shut up! Do you know how disorienting this is?!" I yelled.

"No," she admitted.

I flopped back into the snow. "You'll get hypothermia," Cherry warned.

"Snow is frozen water. I could care less," I groaned. "It won't affect me all that much."

I tried to sort my memories out of Cherry's and Louisa's and Thalia's. "This is the problem. I can't tell which memory is whose."

* * *

I didn't come to the fire, which was a mistake on my part, because Cherry, Lina, and Thalia came looking for me. Lina was the one to find me first.

She looked up at me. "I'm surprised you didn't go down to the creek," she called up.

"That would've been too predictable," I said.

Lina shrugged. "Mind if I came up? How did you even get up there?"

I shrugged. "I don't even know."

She started climbing. Lina's short, wiry body twisted and jumped her way up. She made it to about twenty feet below me. She shook her head. "I still don't know how you got up there."

I shrugged again.

"Is that all you're gonna do? Shrug?" she said exasperatedly.

I didn't respond.

"Alexis, gods. Don't ignore me now."

"I'm not. I just don't know what to respond."

She sat down on her branch.

"There is a boy below us, Lina. I don't want you to shoot him," I said quickly.

She looked startled. "How did you know that and why?"

"I heard him, and he is my cousin." I paused. "On my mom's side. Let me handle this."

I slid off my branch, and free-fell thirty feet, where I lightly landed on another branch. I jumped the last twenty feet to the ground, turning the impact into a somersault.

"Dylan?" I questioned. The boy whipped around. His eyes widened.

"Alexis? I thought you were-"

"Dead," I finished his thought grimly. "Only Mom and Grandma died. What are you doing out here?"

"Mom and Dad divorced. Mom got full custody of me, Dad got Cole." Dylan shuddered. "I tried going back to Dad's. They caught me and dragged me back to Mom's house."

I chewed on my lip. "I'll send a message to Travis to let him know both you and I are safe. Well, mostly."

"What do you mean, _mostly_?" Dylan demanded.

"Dylan. Thirty miles straight in that direction, there's a school. Ask for Louisa di Angelo, Jace Weylore, or Kirsten. You know Kirsten," I evaded the question and pointed in the direction of the school. "If you see a camp full of silvery tents, go around them. They don't like boys. They'll shoot you without second thought."

"Wait, Kirsten? _Our_ Kirsten? Kirsten Shantel? Your twin?!" Dylan exclaimed.

I grinned at him. "Yes, and your cousin."

"Why can't I stay with you?"

My smile fell. "Dylan, I have people hunting me. If you're with me, they'll come after you as well. They aren't picky."

"What'dya do?" Dylan asked, puzzled. "Wait, they aren't people, are they?"

"Ok, look, Dylan. You go to that school, and you say you're my cousin, and you tell them that I told them to tell you. I tell you now, you'll either freak out, or want to stay with me even more so."

Dylan protested: "You're my cousin! I just found you after three years of thinking you were dead! I'm not leaving!"

"If I have to pick you up and take you to the school, Dylan, I will," I threatened.

He stubbornly stayed. I picked him up around his waist, even though he was twelve, and carried him like he was nothing more than a football, and set off in the direction of the school. "I'm starting to regret not letting Lina shoot him," I muttered to myself. I picked up my pace to a fast jog.

"How are you doing this? The last time I met you-"

"The last time you met me I hadn't been fighting for my life for the past three years, or been kidnapped three times in two years," I growled at him. "How do you think I got so strong? Don't struggle, I might accidentally not let you breathe."

If he was on his own two feet, he might've staggered backwards. As it was, he jerked his head away from me as far as he could.

* * *

I stopped in a clearing. I was a little tired, and Dylan was still thoroughly freaked out. I set him down next to a pine tree and went and got fire wood and kindling. Dylan had a nice pile of dry pine needles when I got back. He'd also dug a firepit and cleared snow away from it. I pushed all the pine needles, and then stacked the wood in a cone shape. Discreetly, I got my bag and matches out of the Duat.

"Wait-"

"I'm not going anywhere," I said wryly.

"-where did you get the bag?"

I didn't respond for a while. "Right now, Dylan, it'd be best not to ask questions."

I struck a match on the box and lit the pine needles. I noticed Dylan was shivering. I swore.

"Sorry. I forget I'm more resistant to the cold than most." I got some clothes out of my bag, as well as a warm coat. "Go change," I ordered. "There's a boulder about ten feet that way."

Thankfully, he didn't argue.

* * *

When he came back, we were surrounded.

"Such a tasty little demigod," a voice that sounded like rocks being ground together said. "And a puny mortal as well..."

"Dylan, get behind me," I whispered.

"What are they?"

"Shut up and get behind me!"

"Perhaps we could starve them out, Master," another voice put in.

"No... He will not wait for that. We will not need both. We just have to capture one to get the other," the first voice cackled.

"That's too bad," I said sympathetically, poking the fire casually with a stick. "You seem awfully hungry. I could _never_ survive without food."

The first voice said thoughtfully, "You're right, demigod. You couldn't. But we need to eat. You have no need of the mortal."

"You know, there's another way."

"I'm listening."

"But I'll only tell you if you show yourselves."

Growls and whispers erupted around Dylan and I. "It is unarmed. It couldn't kill you, Master," the second voice I heard said.

So-called 'Master' growled in disagreement. "The creek is less than five hundred feet from here. You want to test one of Poseidon's brood? You go on out."

"Dylan," I whispered very, very faintly. "Whatever happens, _do not_ let go of me. Do you understand?"

"Uh-huh." He grabbed hold of my left hand and the back of my shirt.

Chaos erupted from the monsters surrounding me. "Or," I said loudly, my voice cutting through the din. "I could force you out."

Growls and grunts and squeals erupted again, twice as loud. Chatter in so many different languages I lost count exploded in my ears.

"How, demigod? You have to protect your little mortal friend as well."

"Yeah, well. This is what you get when you're not just a demigod of so-called 'Poseidon's brood'."

A tendril of shadow snaked towards Dylan, and faster than I could think, I drew one of my hunting knives and chopped it to peices. Dylan now just clung to the back of my shirt, allowing me to draw my other knife.

I threw them into the ground, where they stuck, quivering. "A challenge, so-called _master_. Send one monster out, and we will duel. If I defeat the monster once, Dylan and I will not be further harmed, and all of you let us go free. If I don't win, you're welcome to have us for dinner. If you agree to my terms, you'll swear upon the River Styx."

"Any of us?" 'Master' growled.

"Yes."

"And we get to eat you afterwards?"

"Only if you win."

"All of us swear upon the River Styx as you have described your terms. I choose myself for this challenge!"

The invisble audience cheered. Dylan clung to my back, trembling.

'Master' burst out, swinging broadswords casually, and I paled. The poor mortal's eyes were solid gold.

Eildons.

**Holy _crap_ this is long. A full 2,410 words, in fact!**

**!ALL MUST READ THE FOLLOWING!**

**First off, please note that after I finish this story, I won't continue the series until I finish most of my other stories. If you follow any of my other stories, please expect a sudden influx of chapters over on them! In the order I aim to finish is We Made It, Dragon of the Depths, What the Hades?, and possibly A New Avenger?. **

**After I finish all (or all but one) of those, I'll publish Raging Skies, the conclusion to this series. Trust me, I haven't come close to running out of ideas for PJO stuff, so if you want to keep going with my stuff, you may want to favorite or follow me, as the author. I may (actually, that's a definite _yes_) come up with something involving Kirsten and Alexis.**

******If you did read the above, in a review, please say, "Olly olly oxen free!" I'm only doing this so that I know who to PM the above info to.**

******!YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ ANYMORE!**

******Alrighty, then, that aside. Three more chapters! Sorry, you guys won't get full info on the battle, because it's switching to Jace's POV next chapter, and a heck of a lot happens next chapter. More light-hearted-ness than it has been in the entire book, I think.**


	27. The Weird World of Demigods

XVII

Jace

The Weird World of Demigods

Rain pounded against the plyboard as everyone in the dorm crowded around Louisa. Irene and Piper updated me with: "Louisa's been struck by lightning and is amnesiac of the past day," to which I was like, _WHAT?!_

Louisa seemed perfectly fine, except for the blood-red scar on her arm, though she refused to stand up until half an hour passed. Apparently she had been struck before, and knew what was going to happen. All of us updated her of the past day. Even though she seemed horrified at what she'd done to Piper (which I didn't really get, all it was was a scar), overall she seemed alright. More open than she had been since Alexis left.

Behind me, Kirsten practically screamed with joy and tackled someone. I heard the resounding _thud_.

I turned around, to see Kirsten sprawled on top of someone, Frank, Joann, and a twelve-ish boy, all of which looked battered and beaten. Well, except for Kirsten.

"Kirst, Dylan's over there if you wanna talk to him," the person under Kirsten said, muffled.

"Dylan? Cousin Dylan?"

"Uh-huh."

The twelve-year-old grinned as Kirsten straightened up. "Hey, Blue."

"Hey? Hey?! We haven't seen each other in I-don't-even-know, and the first thing you say is _'hey'_?!" Kirsten half-screamed, half-laughed. "And don't call me that ridiculous nickname!"

"You never change!" Dylan laughed and hugged Kirsten.

Alexis sat up, rubbing her head. "I've already got a massive headache from Cherry and the eildions, I didn't need to be tackled as well, Kirst!"

Piper froze. "Eildions?"

"Don't worry, she slaughtered them," Dylan said. "Without killing their hosts, even."

Piper relaxed. "Did she explain everything?"

Dylan snorted. "A better question would be, 'did she explain _anything_'. No, she explained nothing, but I got some of it. I think."

"We need to get out of here. I angered pretty much all the monsters in a hundred-mile radius, and we can't put the mortals in danger," Alexis said, standing up with a little difficulty.

"But they're relying on us," Kirsten said, puzzled.

"And what about our parents? What will they do when they find out that we're missing?" Irene asked as well.

"It doesn't matter what your parents think. As long as they're still thinking, that's enough. Here, put everything that's ours into my bag," Alexis said, setting the bag down and throwing stuff in it.

"What about Louisa?" I asked. Alexis looked at me quizzically.

"Is there something I need to know about besides everyone going nuts over my disappearance?"

Piper swallowed. "Yeah." Louisa and Piper showed their arms to Alexis. She went whiter than a sheet.

"Oh. How long since?"

"Forty-five minutes," Irene jumped in.

"She can walk. Better yet, she has her powers and can turn to air while we fly."

Dylan looked at her incredulously. "Is that another power I wasn't informed of?"

"Dyl, you haven't seen half of it," Alexis said absently.

"Neither have you, actually," I said, smiling. "Irene summonded hellfire ten minutes after you left. It was really funny."

Everyone that had been present except Irene snickered. Alexis's eyes flickered to Irene for a second. "You'll have to show me that when we get to camp. For now, we need to pack and throw everything in here."

Dylan eyed the bag doubtfully. "There's no way everything will fit in there."

Alexis stepped aside with an old-fashioned, sweeping bow. "Then look, O wise one, and believe your eyes."

Dylan peeked inside, and nearly fell in. I hauled him back, laughing. "We've already had that happen, we don't need a repeat!"

"Hurry!" Kirsten said urgently.

Everyone sprang into action. Bags flew through the air and into Alexis's, while food that was in cans was stored the same way. Within minutes, the dorm was empty, except for the air matresses, the cardboard walls, and the round table, as well as the kitchenette.

"How will we get out? The school's surrounded!" Julia said. "Yeah, Tesla can fly, and so can Louisa, but what about the rest of us? We, sadly, cannot fly!"

"We'll take the pegasi," Louisa said. "Everyone but me and Tesla."

"Pegasi don't like children of Hades," I heard Alexis say lowly to Louisa.

"They'll have to deal with it," Louisa said firmly.

* * *

The ten of us charged up to the roof, where I could see a blackened explosion spot on the corner of the roof.

"Cover your ears," Louisa warned, and I heeded it. Even through my protected ears, Louisa's piercing whistles-eight, one for each pegasi-were just that: _piercing._

Tesla whipped out her wings, now common knowledge to nine of us: not ten, Dylan was just finding out.

"Welcome to the weird world of demigods, cuz," Kirsten grinned and punched Dylan in the arm. Dylan elbowed her, but his face was betraying the panic, awe, and confusion he was feeling.

Louisa, just to tease him a little, did a creepy whisper to him: "It never ends..."

Dylan gave a choked laugh. Louisa straightened. "No, seriously, demigodishness defies just about every law of physics. By the way, I'm your half-cousin."

Dylan looked at her like she'd gone crazy. "I'm Alexis and Kirsten's half-sister. That makes you my half-cousin. You have another half-cousin at camp as well."

He now looked curious. "What's he like?"

"Uh, accomplishments or personality?" I asked, stifling my laughter.

Everyone who knew Percy collapsed into laughter.

"Choose the personality, kid. It'll take less time," Julia said, her eyes shining with mirth.

Dylan looked at her like she was crazy. "You're the same age as me! Who're you calling a kid?!"

"This'll be my second war, _kid_, and I'm a Roman. Mentally, I'm a Pluto of a lot older than you."

"A what?"

"Pluto, Roman god of the Underworld," Irene explained. "His Greek counterpart is my dad."

Dylan looked weirded out. _Severely_.

"Are we gonna move or what?" Tesla asked impatiently.

"We kind of have to wait for the pegasi, Tesla," Alexis pointed out.

"We kind of have to defeat these guys before the pegasi get here, because they're gonna get killed, and so are the mortals if we don't move out on them," Tesla said.

I looked down the side of the building. She was right: monsters were flying and crawling up the walls. Alexis groaned. "Can't one battle be enough?!"

Joann, Frank, and Dylan shook their heads and said simultaneously, "No."

Alexis groaned again. "What I wouldn't give to make this all just a fictional story."

**Nope, Alexis, it's not a fictional story. It's a FANfictional story.**

**YES! I AM FINISHING THIS GODS-DARNED BOOK THIS WEEKEND! HOLY CRAP IT'S FINALLY ENDING!**

**No, seriously, it feels like forever since I started this book. Six months I've been on this book. SIX EFFING MONTHS.**

**I'll post the battle tomorrow after my mom finishes working me to death and then resurrects me so I can finish this book. ARG!**

**Then, on Sunday, I'll do my Weekend for Spanish (urg...), and the epilogue. Then I'll do the thank-you. I'll be thanking all the reviewers, but some I'll do especially.**

**HOLY FREAKING CRAP I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY MANAGING TO FINISH THIS DARNED BOOK...**


	28. Party on the Rooftop! Not Really

**I don't own PJO or KC.**

XXVIII

Alexis

Party on the Rooftop!  
Not Really...

I reacted immediately, pulling my knives out of the Duat, and tossing Dylan a bow and some arrows.

"Uh, are you sure that's safe?" Joann asked nervously.

"Just because he's not a demigod doesn't mean he's not almost as good as the Apollo cabin," I said firmly. "I may not have been the one who taught him, but I know he's good. And at camp, he'll get better, because Dylan's extremely competitive."

"Who says we're taking him to camp?!" Julia exclaimed nervously.

"We've already got Evan there, don't we? And he's not even going to your camp!" I fired.

"Evan's _orphaned_!" Joann pointed out.

"Dylan's mom is cruel and selfish, and his dad can't take him in, and he does want to, trust me. He may as well be orphaned," I explained.

"How would you know his mom's selfish and cruel?" Julia said, picking up a defensive stance.

"Because when we moved to Nevada and stayed with them for a short while, which was after Katrina, mind you, all we got was an air mattress and a sleeping bag in a half-renovated guest room, when she had another that was perfectly fine!" I yelled at Julia. "So just _shut up_! This isn't the time for bickering on where to find Dylan a place to stay!"

"Sis," Kirsten said hesitantly into the following silence.

"Yeah?"

"You've got water curling up your arm."

I let go of the water and said, "Thanks."

I heard Dylan whisper to Jace, "Is she like this all the time?"

"No, explosive temper normally comes from the black-haired girl over there."

"I heard that, Weylore!" Louisa yelled from her spot, watching the monsters crawl up the building.

"You were meant to," Jace muttered to himself. Dylan and I snickered.

The first monster heaved itself onto the rooftop, and instantly got incinerated by fire, shot by an arrow, and sliced with a hunting knife.

Needless to say, it burst into glittering gold dust like a piñata.

"Boy, the girls at my old school would love to fight these monsters if they always exploded into glitter like that!" Dylan yelled as he notched another arrow. Several people burst out laughing at his statement.

I blew my hair out of my face. "I take it glitter is the new fad?" I yelled jokingly back at him.

Dylan let loose an arrow. "Of course! Just like those Silly Bands before that, and jeans before that, and Nike shoes way before that!"

"Don't mention Nike shoes to the Nike cabin at camp," I warned.

"Why would you have a Nike cabin?"

"Nike, Greek goddess of victory. Ring any bells?"

"Nope!"

"How 'bout her Roman side, Victoria?"

Dylan grumbled, "I already know _way_ too many Victorias. I don't need another one!"

I ducked a paw-swipe from who-knows-what and slashed upwards. Glitter exploded all over me. I spit some out of my mouth.

Dylan snickered. "Hey, Alexis, you look nice and glittery today!"

I flicked my hand, and water from a puddle cleaned off all the glitter. Another flick, and I sent the water zooming towards him, where it splattered glitter everywhere on him. Dylan shouted in aggravation, "Hey!"

"Hey, Dylan, you look nice and glittery today!" I snickered.

I blocked a strike from a _draecnae_ and stabbed her in the gut. Something with wings tackled me to the ground, and I rolled over, struggling to keep a level head. I stabbed behind me, and I fell to the roof suddenly, because the thing beneath me dissolved.

I rolled again, coming up standing. Just in time too, because a sword _clang_ed against where I had been laying. Six-armed ogres, three of them, to be exact, surrounded me.

The good thing: their brains were the size of a pea. That's right, all of their brains take up the volume of _a_ pea. That's pretty sad.

* * *

I slashed a draecnae from her right shoulder to her left, snaky leg. She wailed in pain and burst. A paw swiped at me, and I back-bended, kicking the thing off the roof again. A half-human, half-something-or-other lunged at me, and I sliced it in half, kicking the pieces off the roof. I slipped on some glitter and fell.

My arm erupted in pain, and my left knife clattered to the roof. With my good arm, I cleaved the whatever-it-was in half.

Then I swung at empty air, and I fell again, off-kilter.

"Hey, hey," Kirsten ran over to me. I groaned: I'd landed on my stabbed arm. "There's no more. Dylan's coming with ambrosia and nectar."

"Anyone hurt badly?" I mumbled to her.

"Frank broke a finger, he won't be shooting anything for awhile. Lots of minor cuts are sported by everyone. Dylan's hair is pretty funny to look at. He's got a minor gash on his knee."

"You?"

"Eh. I already got nectar. I'll be fine."

"Louisa?"

Kirsten winced. "Jace is working on her now. She's got a deep gash across her stomach."

I swallowed. "Joann, Tesla, Irene?"

"Joann's sporting a nasty-looking cut on her forehead. Tesla looks like she's gotten a sack of golden flour dumped on her, so it's hard to tell. Irene's hair is singed around the edges, and she'll be limping on her left leg for awhile."

"Julia, Piper, Jace?"

"Sprained ankle, neck burned, minor cuts."

"How's Dylan, besides the hair?"

"A little freaked out, but just fine besides the knee. No biggie, though."

"How are the pegasi?"

Kirsten hesitated. "They brought some...friends."

She stepped aside. Percy, Annabeth, Reyna, Sadie, and Carter stood there. "Don't you know not to get yourself stabbed?" Sadie demanded, her bright red streak tinted with gold. "Jeez, demigods these days..."

"Sadie, be quiet. Jeez, she just got stabbed, show a little sympathy!" Carter scolded her.

I laughed a little. "I think that's as much sympathy as I'm gonna get, Carter. Thanks for trying, though."

"For once, though, I have to agree with Sadie," Percy grumbled. "Although I can see why. Here." He unscrewed a water bottle and poured it over the wound. I winced, but then I could feel it closing up.

"Thanks."

"Gods, how many monsters were there?!" Annabeth said, stepping up and almost slipping on the gold dust.

I sat up and shook my head to clear the dizziness. "I don't know," I answered Annabeth. "Why are you all hovering over me? You should be over by Louisa!"

"Jace shooed us away," Reyna explained wryly.

"Alexis!" Dylan said, going as fast as he could without slipping. "You okay?"

"Yeah, Dylan, I'm fine," I soothed him.

"Piper sent me over here. She said you got stabbed."

I snorted. "You say that so casually. I'll take a little bit of ambrosia."

Percy watched me closely. I gave him a _give-me-a-break_ look. "Just enough to clear my head, Percy, I promise," I clarified.

"Wait, Percy? As in, half-cousin, Percy?" Dylan asked.

I raised an eyebrow. "Yes, as in, half-cousin, Percy. The one where the personality list would be shorter than the accomplishments." I broke off an tiny corner of the ambrosia square and popped it into my mouth. The dizzy/drowsy feeling abandoned me.

"Who told him that?" Percy questioned.

"A mixture of Jace and Julia," I said, laughing. "Percy, meet my cousin Dylan. Dylan, Percy, my half brother. Warning: don't get on his bad side."

Dylan eyed Percy and nodded slowly. "Alright. I can avoid that. I think."

Kirsten snorted. "I think we'll all take precautions against that. If half of Piper's stories are true, then yes, I'll avoid doing that."

"Someone alert the presses. Kirsten's being cautious," I mumbled to myself.

Dylan just about died of laughter next to me. Kirsten herself glared.

"What?" I asked innocently. That's when Percy started laughing.

**Sorry about the late update. I'll update one more time this afternoon. Expect a surprise! (a good surprise, don't worry)**


	29. Wedding Bells and Epilogue

**For the last time in this book, I don't own PJO or KC.**

XXIX

Jace

Wedding Bells

"You may kiss the bride," Apollo said, grinning. The 400+ people that came to see Percy and Annabeth-_finally_-married cheered louder than the fiercest drakon's roar.

Beside me, stood the Shantel twins, laughing and cheering along with the rest of the crowd. On the far side of them, stood Dylan, who looked rather disgusted but cheering all the same.

On my right stood Louisa, who attempted to tackle me when Apollo said that Percy could kiss Annabeth. On her far side stood Joann and Eva, the forever bickering half-sisters, mainly over absolutely trivial things.

Directly behind me, two fire-users, Leo and Tesla, Leo guiding Tesla and Tesla, surprisingly, complying. On Leo's right, the Hephastus cabin showed. On Tesla's left, the Brooklyn House made an appearance.

Beyond them, stood the whole of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.

Three powerful forces celebrated the union of, to quote Piper, "a match made in heaven," a bond forged out of material even Leo can't just buy or ask for—friendship and trust.

Well, the saving-each-other's-lives-too-many-times-to-count thing probably helped, but we won't go into that.

* * *

_It took me awhile, but I did finally learn that material things aren't normally part of the bigger picture._

_Given, there are exceptions, such as Annabeth's knife given to Luke by Hal. But even then, it was Percy's trust that drove him to give the knife to Luke. The so-called 'cursed blade' could've just as easily have been Riptide, had Annabeth's knife been the one that skittered over the edge. Riptide would've done nothing if Percy hadn't weilded it. Percy could've just as easily gotten used to another sword._

_It's not the material things that make a difference in the world—whether it be the world in general, all those people; the world, as in, the earth; the 'mythological' world; or perhaps, just perhaps, just the world to one person._

***sniffs* Just one more book and I'll be done with this series that I started a ten months ago. HAH! TAKE THAT RICK RIORDAN! I CAN DO AN ENTIRE SERIES IN THE TIME IT TAKES YOU TO DO ONE BOOK!**

**Sorry, had to do that. Just so frustrated on having to wait a ****_year_****...urg.**

**I'll be doing the thank-yous in the next chapter. But for now, the time is nigh, let this story cease (Sorry, I'm doing Shakespeare in English. As an author myself, I seriously have to wonder if he had crossed the fine line between genius and insanity...)**


	30. Thanks and Raging Skies

***sniffs* Just one book away from finishing this series. That sucks, since I've rather grown attached to these characters... :(**

**Anywho, thank you to:**

**Gaia was Framed**-for your constant encouragement and constructive critism. Hard to believe just ten months ago I was on Clashing Tides, huh?

**irishpixie823**-for cheering me up in your reviews!

**Sunleaves17**

**Heddy12311**-Are you having trouble with your story? You haven't updated in ages! Thank you for your constructive critism.

**theHuntress101**

**creamtherabbit77**-for your constant reviews! I always look forward to them

**trustingHim17**-you jumped onto my stories just after Clashintg Tides was finished, am I correct?

**KJtheELMtree**-I have to agree with your description of 'jumping on the bandwagon'. Your awesome and sometimes random reviews always make me laugh! Thank you!

**like123**-I don't exactly know how long you've been with my stories, but thank you for reviewing.

**AssassinoftheShadowDragons**-Your reviews were awesome, even though you just kind of popped up in the middle of the book, and then disappeared...

**Lily White Goddess of Ice**-Sorry about the false alarm for the four months. Did not mean to scare everyone into next week.

**MysteriousSherlock**-Kind of like AssassinoftheShadowDragons, you just kind of popped up out of nowhere and reviewed, and then promptly disappeared again. But thanks for the encouragement anyway!

**KirbyGamzeeGirl**-You may be last on my list, but you _definitely_ aren't least. You may consider me an inspiration, but remember that Kirsten came from _you_, and _I'm_ the one who should be thanking you.

**and all the Guest/Anonymous reviewers!**

**Also, thanks for favoriting/following, dreamingisseeing101, creamtherabbit77, bhz, Sunleaves17, MysteriousSherlock, MorsPerNoctem, KirbyGamzeeGirl, KJtheELMtree, Heddy12311, Gaia was Framed, irishpixie823, and Riverdalerider99!**

**The next book will not come out for awhile, until I get at least three of my stories finished. If you are following We Made It, Dragon of the Depths, or What the Hades?, expect an influx of chapters! A New Avenger? I'm currently kind of stuck on, but I'll power through, I promise!**

**Keep a sharp eye out for ****Raging Skies****!**

**Until the update,**

**~Lou**

**P.S.- Mrs. Jackson [Seriously, call me Sally!] dropped off a platter of blue cookies earlier. Apparently she's delighted that Percabeth ****_finally_**** got married. Since I'm sick right now, help yourselves! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**


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